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THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST (sumer) I
« on: October 04, 2016, 02:21:03 PM »
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THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST
MANUAL OF BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY
BY
ALFRED JEREMIAS


 
LICENTIATE DOCTOR
PASTOR OK THE LUTHEKKIRCHE, AND LECTURER AT THE UNTVEKSITV^>'l.-EJIPdG~'
:/0;n > .
ENGLISH EDITION
Translated from the Second German Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
BY
C. L. BEAUMONT
EDITED BY
REV. CANON C. H. W. JOHNS, Lttt.I).
MASTER OK SI' CATHARINES COLLEGE, CAMUKIDGE
VOL. I
NEW YORK:   G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
LONDON: WILLIAMS ANI) NORGATE
 
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION
THIS English translation contains many alterations and improvements that were not embodied in the second German edition, and constitutes in effect the third edition of my work.
I   have paid special attention to the first three chapters, and have submitted them to a special revision. They form a key to the whole, and I recommend them for special attention as an introduction to the conception of the universe current in the Ancient East.
The plan and scientific principles of the book are fully dealt with in the preface to the first and second German editions, so that I need not refer to them further here.
I owe especial thanks to the painstaking work bestowed upon the translation bv Mrs Beaumont, to whose enthusiasm the English edition is largely due.
ALFRED JEREMIAS.
LEIPZIG, 21.Y/ February 1911.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND GERMAN
EDITION
THE first edition of this hook, published Easter 1904, was already exhausted by the beginning of September 1905. The author feels every reason for satisfaction in the scientific, as well as other results, of the rapid sale of a large edition. It was necessarily a venture on his part to appear wholly and without reserve on the side of those who connect the “Babylonian'” conception of the universe with the primary ideas of the Biblical writers. In the meantime, men of the most different theological parties, when they have not shirked the labour of penetrating into the thought world of the Ancient East, have become convinced of the truth of the “Pan-Babylonian1'1 conception, and of its importance for the understanding of the Bible.
In consideration of the agreement already obtained, the author has bestowed renewed care upon the introductory presentation of this ancient conception of the universe, in the hope that the two first chapters may serve a useful purpose as an explanation of the system characteristic of the Ancient East. The astral motifs (which are interwoven with the Biblical stories) must unavoidably present, for many people, peculiar difficulties. In the new edition the passages concerning astral mythology have been greatly amplified.
To readers who have not yet been able to grasp the novel idea, a large asterisk at the beginning and the end of the passages concerned may serve as a signal to omit them in reading the book ; on the other hand, they may facilitate the recognition of the subject for those who wish to penetrate the realm of astral motifs.
viii PREFACE TO THE SECOND GERMAN EDITION
I have avoided polemical arguments with opponents. In many cases the necessary premises for fruitful discussion are still wanting. A number of antagonistic declarations have been collected separately, and may perhaps be printed later as a contribution to the history of Biblical-Oriental science.
The author’s fundamental principles in regard to the Biblical question are reprinted in the following preface to the first edition. He is at one with those who seek in the Old Testament a revelation through the medium of history. For him the Israelite presentation of God and expectation of a deliverer is not a distillation of human ideas grown on various soils of the Ancient East, but is an eternal truth, in the gay mantle of Oriental imagery. Further, the forms of this imagery belong to a single conception of the universe, which sees in all earthly things and events the image of heavenly things, typically foretold in the pictures and the cycles of the starry heavens.
The author owes many thanks to his publisher and printer. His publisher has freely consented to a large increase in the number of figures, and has again been at great pains to secure a high level of work. At the same time, an extraordinarily low price has been made possible. The German editions were printed bv the Bohlau Hof-Buchdruckerei in Weimar, with whom it must be a pleasure for any author to work, and to whom it is for the most part due that both the first and second German editions may be described as typographically accurate.
The printing of the book was begun in the middle of April 1906, and in June the first twelve sheets were specially published as Fart I.
Great care has been taken with the index. Thanks should be expi*essed to Herr Miinnich, student of theology, for his earnest care and trouble in proof correction and in the index.
ALFRED JEREMIAS.
LEIPZIG, 3h/ October 1906.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST GERMAN
EDITION
THE clearest illustration and the best interpretation of any writing is to be found in contemporary records. This self- evident truth has, after long dispute, been theoretically established in the region of Old Testament research. But in practice there is as yet little trace of its effect. People have been content for the most part to take the results clue to the investigation of the monuments as interesting decorations to commentaries, but they are seldom allowed to exercise any influence on the understanding of Israelite inodes of thought. The scepticism which the so-called orthodox “positive11 school showed to the utilisation of the monuments, had good grounds. But this scepticism should have been directed not against the monuments, but against the conclusions of students who found in them the confirmation of their own views. It would have been better to fight these opponents with their own weapons. Attacks have been made recently on the conclusions of Assyriology, especially from the side which has all along claimed to be founded upon science, and, as must be allowed, has always carefully and earnestly sought to interpret the Old Testament by the results of the study of historical science and ethnology.
The school of historical criticism which began its work at a time when the fields of Oriental archaeology were not yet laid bare, has not shown itself inclined to utilise the new material, because, on important points, this contradicts the dogmas founded upon earlier stages of knowledge.
The author of this book holds the traditions of the Old Testament with a confidence based ultimately upon religious
X
PREFACE TO THE FIRST GERMAN EDITION
conviction : novum testamentum in veterc latet. This confidence has been more and more scientifically confirmed as the disclosure of the circumstances and inter-relations of the Ancient East have allowed a thoroughly critical examination of similar circumstances described in the Old Testament. It is a brilliant confirmation of his views that the learned scholar who accepted the suppositions of the school of historical criticism with the greatest consistency and had followed them out to the end, has now concluded, on the ground of a more vital knowledge of the Ancient East and of its contemporary history, that those suppositions prove to be erroneous.
Our first two chapters, which were originally meant as an introduction, require a special preliminary notice.
In my book Im Kampfe nm Bubcl u. Bibcl I have already fully and emphatically accepted the hypotheses of the mythological form of presentation, and the mythological system, as developed by Winckler. It had been explicitly pointed out by Winckler that a right knowledge of the “ mythological ” form of expression and of the conceptions of antiquity could exist equallv well with the most perfect faith and with the most far- reaching scepticism in regard to the facts related. I have not as vet become aware of any contrary conclusion affecting the essence and bearing of facts, which bases its opposition on anything but misunderstanding. I see in the knowledge of the Ancient-Oriental mythological system the key to an etymology of Biblical literature; but I must endeavour, in regard to it, to caution the reader against an over-estimation of this form and against finding a solution of facts in mythological ideas. In order to make the system comprehensible, the Ancient-Oriental conception of the universe and its fundamental astral Pantheistic system must be explained.
The two introductory chapters are placed for the first time in connection with authentic documentary records.
As a whole, I trust the book may serve not only to make known the essence of Biblical representations, but that it will further the understanding of its contents. Research has long enough laid most stress upon the investigation of tradition. Criticism has busied itself with but two lines of tradition, the pre
PREFACE TO THE FIRST GERMAN EDITION xi
canonical, dealt with by the literary critic, and the pout-canonical, which aims at establishing the form of the traditional text. But the essence of Biblical literature does not lie in the difference between Yahvist and Elohist, or in the critical investigation of Massora, Septuagint, Peshito, and so on. We would in no way underestimate the value of these researches, we would rather emphasise their necessity and their great profit. But the meaning is more than the form. The service rendered by Oriental archaeology is to have directed investigation of the meaning on to new lines, and to have given an authoritative standard for its understanding.
The arrangement of the book is simple. The Old Testament writings were originally treated in the order of Luthers Bible. The glossary part may be taken as Schrader redivivus; it may serve the same purpose which Eberhard Schrader’s K.A.T. (Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament) served in the introductory stages of the investigation of cuneiform writings.
I trust the book may at least in some measure fulfil the great purpose which I have had in view.
ALFRED JEREMIAS.
LEIPZIG, Day o f the Spring Equinox, 190-L
 

 
V-
 
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
THE publishers have concluded that it would be a help to the general reader to have an introduction to this very interesting and useful book dealing with the light thrown by recent Oriental exploration upon Biblical study. Ever since the excitement caused by GEORGE SMITH’S announcement in the Daily Telegraph for 3rd December 1873 of his discovery among the cuneiform tablets in the British Museum of close parallels to the Bible stories of Creation and the Deluge, interest in the subject has been unflagging. After the proprietors of the Daily Telegraph, at their own expense, sent GEORGE SMITH to Nineveh to recover, if possible, further fragments of the ancient Babylonian legends, little progress was made for several years. GEORGE SMITH published the results of his exploration, combined with further researches in the British Museum hoards, as The Chaldean Genesis, a book still full of fascinating interest.
The explorations since conducted by the University of Pennsylvania at the ancient site of Bel-worship in Nippur have been fully described by Professor HII/PRECHT in his splendid work entitled Explorations in Bible Lands, and in The Excavations in Assyria and Babylonia, Series D, vol. i., of the publications of the Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania. The tablets procured by this expedition are regularly published with exquisite care and fidelity in a great Series A. The Deutsche Orientgesellschaft have spent years excavating Babylon and Asshur, the ancient capital of Assyria; their wonderful results being continually reported in the Mitteilungen der Deutsche Orientgesellschaft zu Berlin. The French have had years of work at Telloh, the ancient
XIV
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
Lagash, capital of an independent kingdom in Southern Babylonia, which has recovered a municipal history of the second millennium n.c. They have also carried on explorations for manv years at Susa, the ancient capital of Elam and Persia, as results of which the French Ministry of Education issue from time to time magnificent tomes of inscriptions, arelneological reports, and researches as Memnires de la Delegation en Perse. The British Museum is continually acquiring masses of fresh material, and the Trustees have already issued twenty-six volumes of Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, etc., in the British Museum. The natives of Babylonia, having learnt the commercial value of the treasures hidden beneath the soil under their feet, annually send to Europe hundreds of tablets, eagerly bought by museums and private collectors. The Imperial Ottoman Museum at Constantinople is rapidly becoming a vast storehouse of Babylonian literature and archaeology, which will tax the powers of European scholars for years to come to arrange, classify, copy, and edit.
The enormous amount of such material available for the reconstruction of history in the valleys of the Euphrates and the Tigris, pushing back our knowledge of human civilisation, and that of a very high order, beyond dates once assigned to the Flood or even to the creation of the World, requires incessant and concentrated labour on the part of many students. It is so vast that few men can have more than a knowledge of its existence, and every scholar has to make some definite branch of the subject his special study. There is, consequently, grave danger that even those whose knowledge of cuneiform is adequate may become so engrossed in one aspect as to miss a larger view of the whole.
In practice it is too often left to somewhat irresponsible persons to make the results of scholars available for the general public. There are many popular presentations available, but a thoroughly reliable handbook of Biblical archaeology has yet to be written. It is not the fault of the scholars usually known as Assyriologists that such popular introductions are not to he had. The absorbing demands of their own work
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
XV
must be satisfied first. There are, however, now many means of following the progress of this wonderful new branch of knowledge. The publications above referred to are not easily appreciated without severe and prolonged study. But our own Society of Biblical Archaeology has taken a prominent position as an organ for research. The Expository Times and the Interpreter keep a keen eye upon everything bearing upon the Bible. Most of the new commentaries embody the results of such research as seems to be most reliable.
Eberhard Schrader, the Father of Assyriology in Germanv, early compiled a most valuable handbook of Assyriologieal illustrations of the Old Testament, and his Die Keilinschriften and das Alte Testament, which appeared in an English dress as The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament, has been an invaluable text-book of its subject. The new Dictionary of the Bible edited by Dr HASTINGS, and The Encyclopivclia Bihliea edited bv Professor CHEYNE have given welcome aid in making the subject generallv known. In such a progressive science, where fresh facts are brought to light almost daily, even such great works soon need supplementing. The third edition of Schrader was carried out by Professor H. ZIMMEIIN and Professor H. WJXCKLKR, and was a revelation to most of its readers. The additional matter was so great in amount that the book was practically rewritten.
The recent science of Comparative Religion has forced on Biblical students the necessity of weighing the parallels to the Old and New Testaments to be found in other sacred books and the suggestions made by a knowledge of other religious beliefs. The intention to write an archaeological commentary on the Old Testament in the light of all this fresh knowledge and suggestion has undoubtedly been present to the minds of many scholars. They have issued monographs on special points too numerous to catalogue here. These might have served as prolegomena to the commentary.
It has been the aim, and this work is the outcome of it, on the part of Dr Jeremias to produce such a view of the new treatment as should commend it to serious students and also free it from the reproach of capricious novelty. Scholars
XVI
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
cannot be supposed to have much more than begun their labours in the relation of the Bible to older religious teachings. Meantime here is an excellent presentation of the sort of thing that is going on. Few can be tempted to suppose that all will stand the test of further research. Others will perceive that even while the author is writing down what he has gathered, some of the ground has already shifted under his feet. There are some who will hasten to point out the modifications necessary from their point of view. It would be monstrously unfair to condemn such a work for the reason that it was not exact in every detail. Such an attempt had to be made, and it is very well done. The labour expended must have been all but overwhelming to contemplate, and it. is a wonder that the author did not give up his work in despair.
A number of opinions are here expressed which may seem novel and even repellent to English readers. They must examine the grounds set out, and, if these seem insufficient to warrant the conclusions drawn, let them suspend their judgment. Confirmation or refutation is near at hand. Only one word of caution is needed. The opinions stated by Assyri- ologists, however eminent they may be as such, have no greater weight in subjects where they have no special application, than would be those of a botanist on Assyriology. It is not Assyriology which says this, that, or the other thing of the Bilile. In the whole realm of Assyriology the Bible is not once named or referred to. The whole subject of Biblical indebtedness to Babylonian sources is not Assyriological. It is a matter of evidence, and can be weighed by anyone of sufficient acumen without any knowledge of cuneiform. Assyriologists may vouch for their facts, they have no special mandate to decide the application of them.
The reader may well expect some explanation of the paragraphs touching upon astral religion and the ever-recurring motif: current literature abroad is much occupied by a discussion of these things.
This work aims at rendering clearly intelligible to those who have not the expert knowledge of cuneiform writing and the ancient languages of Assyria and Babylonia needful to check
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
xviii
Whether it will stand the test of further investigation and fresh knowledge remains to be seen. It is all largely a matter of interpretation. The interpretation which he gives seems at present to fit the known facts very well, but we must suspend our judgment awhile yet. Naturally, no treatise expounding the astral religion and written by a native Babylonian has come down to us. We do not know that the inventors of this great system of astrological thought may not very well have lived before the age of writing. The astral form of religion may, on the other hand, be a late attempt to systematise religion and harmonise it with science, as then known and understood. Calendar motifs are often pointed out in Hugo Winckler’s works as really ruling the development of religious ideas. This seems to be quite natural. Much will therefore depend upon the age to which the calendar motif in question has to be assigned. To all appearance the calendar, at least the intercalation of the second Adar, etc., was still a very haphazard affair in the time of the First Dynasty of Babylon. This may have been a period of degeneracy, but we are not yet sure what was the extent of Babylonian knowledge of the calendar. Dr Jeremias may unconsciously claim too much for it.
There is remarkably little, if any, trace of the astral theory in the Babylonian proper names. One may not be prepared to expect it there. Proper names are often very old, and the theory may have arisen long after the proper names were so well established that the habit of calling a child after some deceased relative would prevent any coining of fresh names. Even so, the attributes ascribed to the gods in proper names—and these are the surest indication of popular beliefs—are by no means easy to express astrally.
There is, further, considerable doubt about the application of mythological motifs. The reader may well think that ancient authors were reduced to a parlous state if they could not refer to a hero’s crossing a river without becoming obsessed by a nibtru motif. Anything which occurs sufficiently often in mythology to be classed as a motif has to be accounted for by some necessity of the primitive mind. We are still not sufficiently acquainted with the thoughts of early men to be
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
XVII
the statements of scholars, a theory, largely due to the genius of Hugo Winckler, which professes to account for the various forms which religion took in the Ancient East, particularly that part of it dominated by the settled Semitic peoples. Primarily, these forms are believed to have arisen in Babylonia, but, owing to the close contact of Arabia, Palestine, Syria, and parts of Asia Minor, due to commerce or war, they were widely held and early assimilated ; they appear in varied guises, and were greatly modified by native genius. At the first glance, the reader will see that this theory would account for much that has hitherto defied explanation, and will necessitate the modification not only of traditional views but of many modern theories. It will meet with sturdy opposition from orthodox theologians and higher critics alike. Unfortunately, an excessive amount of misrepresentation has been allowed to obscure the points at issue. It seems only fair that its exponents should be heard. It may be confuted by argument based on fuller knowledge, but is not likely to be dismissed by ignorance expressed in contemptuous condemnation.
Dr Jeremias has bestowed great pains on elaborating the theory and certainly presents it in a manner likely to command respect. His work is extremely valuable as a very full contribution to Biblical archaeology, and, whatever may be thought of his theory, we owe him our best thanks for making available rich stores of illustrative material for understanding the setting of the Old Testament. Very little can be added to this side of the work, and the book gives a wonderfully clear account of the enormous advance in our knowledge of contemporary thought. Instead of emerging from a condition of primitive life, and developing their civilisation and religion independently and in protest against barbarism and savagery, we see that on all hands Israel was in contact with advanced civilisation and must have found it extremely difficult to avoid high ideals of morality and religion. It is difficult to see how Babylonian influence could have been kept at bay, and we may learn with some surprise how well worthy of adoption most of it must have been.
The particular theory of astral religion which Dr Jeremias adopts is less objectionable than some which have been set out.
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
xix
sure how they would regard such motifs. The method is not, therefore, unsound, but one fears that many of its applications are premature. Besides, the inventors of the astral religion had minds of an order which we can hardly class as primitive.
Doubtless, in the last resort, the difficulties of explaining man’s view of his relation to his god, which may roughly be taken to be his religion, arise from the difficulty of estimating man’s mental equipment. It seems untenable to suppose that ideas have of themselves a power to propagate themselves beyond the limits of healthy existence and so to produce a competition which will secure their further evolution. The laws of the evolution of ideas in history must be sought in some more scientific fashion than by a more or less happy use of a metaphorical statement transferred from the laws supposed to hold in natural history. It is difficult indeed to formulate a law of evolution of thought which shall explain the history of religion, or indeed of any human institutions. We may still be content to register, tabulate, and classify. The theory which will explain is still to be discovered.
This is one more attempt to group a very large set of notions and to show their organic relation. It is probably easily pressed too far, and Dr Jeremias may ultimately be shown to have overstated his case. But he must be shown to have done .so, not rashly accused of either stupidity or special pleading. He has certainly made out a very good case, and as more material becomes available it must be used to support, or invalidate his contentions. They cannot be ignored. It would be a pity to start another theory till this is demolished.
It is convenient to some minds to have a theory to connect up the isolated facts, apt to become very confusing otherwise. All that needs to be remembered is that a theory is not a fact, and may have to be modified or even abandoned in face of new facts. The history of the theories called laws in natural science and philosophy will be familiar to most readers, and should serve to keep them from the error of supposing that the facts are part of the theory to be accepted or rejected with it.
The merit of the astral theory of ancient religion may seem to be that it will give scholars and booksellers employment for
XX
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
some time to come. Even if it be ever accepted, much labour will have to be expended upon it before anyone thoroughly understands it. In the simple form presented by Dr Jeremias many will form opinions about it, and doubtless it can be modified to meet such views, if they are sufficiently supported by argument. For it is admirably qualified for being written about, verification and confutation being equally unattainable. People in search of a subject on which to write a book will find this easy to begin upon, difficult to give up, and certain to last a long time.
There is always a certain possibility for a clever, if not overeducated, man to happen upon a simple solution of the universe. We have all done it at some time, probably early in our career. Usually considerations of modesty, or the advice of friends, or a lucky lack of a publisher, has prevented our applying it at length and at once to some large subject. Doubtless we were fond enough of our pet idea to re-examine it, and finally to tacitly bury it in oblivion. This happy conjunction of events—one had almost said planets—seems unlikely to recur. Either from lack of sound material or over-facility of production, and possibly from want of modesty or decline of faithful friendship, the “simple-gospel” makers seem to be on the increase. Those of us who have little time to spare want to read books where speculation has been reduced to a minimum, and in which we may rely upon all the facts adduced in support of a theory. We are consequently apt to throw aside a book which we can neither see through nor verify.
It is clear to those of us who have lost the omniscience of youth that the key to most of man’s history and institutions is no simpler thing than man himself. We who have any belief in l'eligion regard the explanation of any religion as inexact which does not take into account the nature of the divinity worshipped as well as the intellectual apparatus of the worshipper. Doubtless, in the opinion of some, we thereby renounce all claim to explain religion, but nevertheless we claim a right to be heard in defence, if not in explanation. The reality of the thing, to our apprehension, is the ultimate reason why we cannot explain or account for it. We are naturally
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
xxi
slow to admit that any man or school of men could invent a system of ideas serving for a religion. We are apt to resent and rule out of court any account of any religion which would make it a purely intellectual product of reflection, a mere branch of science or philosophy.
This book will perhaps hardly appeal to the young, who will prefer to write another simple solution themselves. In spite of all prejudice, maturer minds may, however, well consider the astral theory as explaining certain aspects not only of Babylonian but also other religions. They may come to welcome it as affording a real insight into ancient thought.
The astral theory is not the same thing as Pan-Babylonism. The statements of Dr Jeremias may be taken as authoritative on this subject, and, unfortunate as the term may be, we have no right to impute tendencies or motives which are explicitly repudiated. Probably the individual members of the school do not pledge themselves to any declaration made on their behalf by any other member. The reader must estimate for himself the bearing of each alleged comparison of Babylonian prototypes with later similar institutions elsewhere. He may feel forced to admit borrowing from Babylonia or Babylonian influence. Even in some cases he may go so far as to admit literary dependence upon cuneiform sources, c.g. in the Biblical stories of Creation or the Deluge.
The book must be used everywhere with independent judgment. While we must allow that Dr Jeremias is sincerely convinced of the opinions he has set out, we must examine them for ourselves along with the facts. The careful selection of these facts and their clear and striking presentation, along with a rich store of illustrations, must be a great boon to all who wish to compare the knowledge of Babylonia and Assyria, gleaned from the classical authors or from the Bible, with contemporary and native sources.
It is not the province of the writer of an introduction to combat any of the opinions of the author nor to support them by other evidence. The present writer differs considerably from Dr Jeremias’ opinions on many points. The general purpose of the work is admirable, and many orthodox scholars will find
XXI1
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
great support for their views. Needless to say, they would be ill advised to lean too heavily on this staff ol Babylonia. Some critics of the Old Testament and some reconstructors of the New will find an armoury of weapons for their purpose. The student of history will find fresh examples of what he has deduced from other areas, and possibly will have reason to revise some of his theories. The general reader will experience entrancing interest, and, to judge from known instances, be tempted to read it all at a sitting.
Dr Jeremias has given a great deal of most valuable material which cannot be found collected elsewhere. This must give his book a permanent value. His account of the new theories is the best yet attainable. When they are finally accepted or disproved this will remain a useful record of them. In any case, they are well worth reading and considering.
C. H. W. JOHNS.
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Re: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST (sumer) I
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ABBREVIATIONS, ETC.
A./?.A., Das Alter der Babylonischen Astronomie; A. Jeremias. (Hinrichs, 1909.)
A.B., Assyriologische Bibliothek, by Delitzsch and Haupt, 1881 ff. (pub. by Hinrichs, Leipzig).
A.O., Der Alte Orient. Publication of the Vorderasiat. Gesellschaft. (Hinrichs, 1899 ff.)
A.   O. I., Alter Orient, I. Jahrgang.
B.   A., Beitnige zur Assyriologie, by Delitzsch and Haupt. (Hinrichs,
1889 ff)
B.   N.T., Babylonisches im Neuen Testament; A. Jeremias. (Hinrichs,
1905.)
C.   T., Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the Brit. Museum,
1896   ff.
Handle'., Handworterbuch ; Delitzsch. (Hinrichs, 1896.)
G.   G.G., Grundrisz der Geographic und Geschichte des Alten Orient ;
Hommel.
H.   C., Hammurabi Code.
I-N., Izdubar-Nimrod, eine altbabylonische Beschworungslegende;
A. Jeremias. (B. G. Teubner, 1891.)
K.A.T., Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 3rd ed., 1903;
Eberhard Schrader. (English translation 1885-1888.)
K.B., Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek ; Eberhard Schrader. (Reuther, 1889.) K. T., Keilinschriftliches Textbuch zum Alten Testament; Winckler. (Hinrichs, 1903.)
Lex., Lexikon der griech. und romischen Mythologie; Roscher. (Teubner.)
M.D.P. V., Mitteilungen des Deutschen Palastina-Vereins.
M.V.A.G., Mitteilungen der Vorderasiat. Gesellschaft. (Peiser, Berlin.)
O.   L.Z., Orientalistische Literaturzeitung. (Peiser, 1898 ff.)
P.   S.B.A., Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology.
R.P.T/i., Realencyklopadie fur Prot. Theol. und Kirche, edited by Hauck.
(Hinrichs, 1896 ff.)
V.A.B., Vorderasiatische Bibliothek. (Hinrichs, 1906.)
Winckler, F., Altorientalische Forschungen ; H. Winckler. (Pfeiffer,
1897   ff)
Z.A., Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie ; Bezold.
XXIX
XXX
ABBREVIATIONS
Z.AAV., Zeitschrift fi.ii- Alttest. Wissenschaft; B. Stade.
Zimmern, Beit., Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Baby]. Religion   xii.].
(Hinrichs, 1901.)
Z.D.M.G., Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenkindischen Gesellschaft.
Z.P. V., Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastina-Vereins.
I.   R. II. R. etc.. Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western As:a, Brit. Museum. Abh. phi/.-hist. tl. Konigl. Sachs. GesclI. der \\GssenscJiaften = iK\A\?ec\&- lungen der philologisch-historischen Classe der Kdnigl. Sachsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften.
Genesis, Delitzsch = English, The Chaldean Account of Genesis, 1S76. New ed., Sayce. (G. Smith.)
A si rainy then, Stricken = Astralmy then der Hebraer, Babylonier und Aegypter.
Hoik mid Parodies, English translation, The Babylonian Conception of Heaven and Hell. No. IV. of a series of short studies called the “ Ancient East,” published by D. Nutt, Long Acre.
THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST
CHAPTER I
THE ANCIENT-EASTERN DOCTRINE AND THE ANCIENT- EASTERN COSMOS
INTRODUCTION
THE earliest Babylonian records known to us so far by the excavations in the valleys of the Euphrates and of the Nile do not extend much farther back than 3000 c.c. About 2650- 2000 Babylon was founded by Sargon and became the metropolis and, at the same time, the centre of Western Asiatic civilisation; and history clearly shows that the 2000 years between the founding of Babylon and the subjection of the Eastern world to the West were under the intellectual domination of Babylon.
But these 2000 years are of a comparatively late antiquity. The oldest monuments lead us to infer that a highly developed civilisation existed before the Babylonian age, the beginnings of which are prehistoric to us and may probably for ever remain prehistoric; we have no definite knowledge of its origin. But one thing is certain: all the Babylonian cuneiform literature which we possess, from the oldest times known to us, belongs to periods in which the population had long been Semitic. The rise of Babylon to the position of capital city and centre of national life took place under the influence of Semitic immigrants.1 But even before that the records show Semitic
1   The much-misunderstood designation “Canaanite migration” was finally determined on by H, Winckler because episodes of this migration were first and
VOL. T,   1
2   
language. Hence there must have been an earlier Semitic immigration, at latest about 4000 B.C., which produced the Assyro-Babylonian language of the cuneiform inscriptions, and it was after the second of the Semitic incursions at the earliest that Babylon became the centre of the Oriental world. What lies still farther back is in darkness. As philological laws show that Babylonian writing is not founded upon the principles of a Semitic language, it may be concluded that the first Babylonian civilisation, especially the discovery of the art of writing, may be ascribed to a non-Semitic people; and since—in very late Assyrian records, it is true—there is mention of a “language of Sumer and Akkad,11 we speak of a “ Sumerian 11 civilisation, inherited by the Babylonian-Semitic people.
Nothing can be said with certainty as to the character of this first civilisation, which we will call in future “ Euplnatesian,11 to distinguish it from the later Semitic-Babylonian epochs.2
best studied in the country of Canaan, where the immigrants left their impression in characteristics and language, as in a previous migration to the land of the Euphrates (which he therefore calls Babylonian-Semitic). From the same stock come the rulers of Sumer and Akkad, also the first dynasty of Babylon (2200- 1900), the Phoenicians in the West, and perhaps the Carthaginians, the pre- Israelite population of Canaan (Amorites and Canaanites of the Bible), the Hebrews (belonging to the Habiri of the Amarna period), Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, and also the Hyksos in Egypt. The term may not be a happily chosen one, but it is difficult to suggest a better. “Arabian” (Hommel) can hardly be entertained, as the name is misleading. “ West-Semitic ” (lately suggested by Ilommel) includes the Arameans, who formed the next wave of immigration. In Kampf um Babel tuid Bibel (4th ed., p. 12) “ Amorite ” is suggested (and is accepted by Winckler, Auszitg aits der Vorderas. Geschichte, p. 3) as a part of the race who rose to power in Babylon called themselves Amuri. In the so-called controversy about Babel and the Bible the expression “ Canaanite ” has led to serious misunderstandings. Delitzsch speaks {Babel n. Bibel, i. 46) of “ ancient tribes of Canaanite stock who were settled in Babylon about 2500 B.c.” Nikel {Die Genesis, p. 240) takes his stand upon this, and asserts, “ Thus Abraham, when he moved to Palestine from Ur of the Chaldees, only returned to the original home of his forefathers.” Ed. IConig’s Protest Babel it. Bibel, p. 18, adheres to this misunderstanding.
2   Comp. F. H. Weissbach, Die Snmerische Frage, Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs, 1S9S ; Halevy, Le Siun^risme et Vhistoire Babylonienne, Paris, 1901 ; F. Jeremias in Chantepie de la Saussaye, Religionsgeschichte, iii. p. 262. The present author has recorded his “ antisumerian ” views in the Theologische Literalnrzeitnng, 1898, No. 19. This problem, of immeasurable importance to universal history, as also to the history of religion and of civilisation, cannot be solved from a purely philological point of view. The time has not yet arrived to include this pre- Semitic race in the Ural-Altaic group (Ilommel, latest in G. G. G., pp. 18 ff.). The
INTRODUCTION
3
The hope of solving the problem by new discoveries of yet move ancient literary remains has been invariably disappointed. The oldest records known betray a Semitic character; consequently we still know nothing about the earliest history of the country or the beginnings of its civilisation.1
The records in which history first emerges out of the misty darkness of this, to us prehistoric age, show that it was not barbaric violence and war which gave impetus to the evolution of political and social life, but that together with the material requisites of an obviously peaceful development,2 the whole thought and conduct of the people were governed by a uniform intellectual conception. In the remotest times we find, not hordes of barbarians, but an established government, under sacerdotal control. It was not by the power of the sword that states were formed and civilisation grew, as in Greece and Rome. There appears rather a manner of development seeming to contradict laws which one would infer from Western history and ethnology. The oldest records, as well as the whole civilisation of the Euphrates valley, point to the existence of a scientific and at the same time religious system which was
uncertainty of the readings defeats every attempt to study the language by comparative methods.
1   The uncertainty of the question to what extent the Babylonians were “Semitic” is not of very great importance in studying the history of religion and of civilisation, provided we are careful, in using the cuneiform literature, to bear in mind that the sociological and ethnological civilisation of two races is mixed in the records (see Curtiss, Quellen der ursemitischen Religion, p. 35). The term “Semitic” is primarily used to denote a family of languages, but civilisation is not confined by the limits of language, and the ancient Babylonian civilisation, whether it were originally Semitic or non-Semilic, became the common property of the whole Oriental world, although it developed into various forms. In sociological research we have gradually given up the divisions into Semitic, Hamitic, and Japhetic. Winckler has abolished the conception of “ Semitism ” (and “ Bedouinism ”) as the foundation of Oriental religion (and civilisation), and suggests in its place Arabic-Semitic-Oriental {M.V.A.G., 1901) ; the title shows an important step in the study of Eastern civilisation.
2   In the oldest Babylonian inscriptions (see Thureau-Dangin, “ Sumer-Akkad. Konigsinschr.,” Vorderasiat. Bibl., Stuck i.) canal-building is frequently mentioned. Political tumults resulted in the neglect and obstruction of the canals, and consequent ruin to the whole country ; therefore in ancient Babylon war must have been regarded as a disturbing force, and not as a means of development. The introduction to the H. C. does not record internal war : the only purpose of war was the subjugation of uncivilised hordes.
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not confined only to the secret teaching of the temple, but by which the political organisations were formed, justice done, and property managed and protected. The farther we look back into antiquity the more absolute is this rule. It was only after the fall of the first civilisation of the Euphrates that other forces gained in influence. The first system was founded, it seems, upon a purely astronomical theory, whereas the Semitic immigrants in their teaching and culture emphasised the earthly phenomena of life and death, dependent, according to them, on the course of the stars.1 This view is supported by the “ Canaanite ” forms of worship which agree with the Babylonian teaching, namely, the worship of the god of the Sun and of Spring, who, after his victory over the Powers of Winter, built the world and took charge of its destiny.
The Ancient-Oriental teaching spread over the whole world, and, exerting a different intellectual influence over every civilisation according to the peculiar character of each, it developed into many new forms. Egypt and ancient Arabia, and therefore Elam, Iran, Persia, India, China, together with the pre- Greek “ Mycenaean ” civilisation, the Etruscan, and the ancient American, all show the same foundation of culture ; the prehistoric world of Europe was also influenced by this intellectual life, by way of North Africa and Spain on one side, and through Crete on the other side, without any destructive effect on racial and national differences.2
1   Eshmun, Melqart; Baalat of Gabal, Tainmuz ; Baal, Moloch ; Adad, Ashera, etc.
2   One might call this the universal primitive idea (“ Volkergedanke ”). But the expression has been appropriated by Bastian for the opposite hypothesis, according to which the recurrence of certain ideas is ascribed to the independent development of primitive thoughts spontaneously arising in the human mind. Ed. Stucken and H. Winckler have shown that the Ancient-Oriental conception of the universe, as we find it expressed in all parts of the world, entirely precludes the possibility of an independent origin in different places, by the exact repetition of certain distinctly marked features, which only transmission by a migration can satisfactorily explain. For Ancient Arabia, comp. Winckler, “ Arabisch-Semitisch- Orientalisch,” M. V.A.G., 1901. For Egypt, see deductions in first volume of the collection “ Im Kampfe uni den alten Orient,” Die Panbabylonischen, Die aegjptiscke Religion und der alte Orient, 2nd ed., 1907, Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs ; and earlier, Hommel, Gesch. u. Geogr, des A.O. (also article in Th. Lz., 1906). For China, India, Persia, Mexico, and the myths of the South American aborigines, see Index, under the various headings in question. F01 transmis-
INTRODUCTION
5
We call this teaching “Babylonian1-'1 because the oldest and clearest statements of it have been discovered to us in the district of Babylon, and because it is founded on astronomy, which originated in Babylonia. It traces the origin of all things, the growth of the universe out of “ chaos11 to the present state of the world, and the further course of evolution through future ceons till the destruction and renewal of the world. It is identical with religion, and indeed shows signs of a latent monotheism. Its characteristic feature is the expectation of a REDEEMER, proceeding from the Deity, who in the course of the ages overcomes the Powers of Darkness. Indications will be found suggesting that the transmission of the doctrine throughout the world may be placed in the age of Taurus, which is contemporary with the time of Sargon I. and Naram-Sin.2
In the following sections we attempt to reconstruct the Ancient-Oriental teaching and to support each point by documentary evidence. The succeeding chapters of the book are mainly occupied in tracing the relation between this teaching and the Israelite religion. The consistent nature of the documentary evidence will clearly explain the Babylonian theory, namely, a theological system headed by Marduk as :mmnius clews. It will not indeed always be possible to distinguish between the “ primitive 11 uncorrupted astral theory and the “ Canaanite11 theory, which emphasises the phenomena of nature.3
sion of ideas into Europe, see Sophus Muller, Urgesckichte Europas, lix. l86. S. Muller shows, for example, that the mythological.figure of the Thunder-god and the symbol of the double hammer travelled from Grreco-Mycenaean Crete through Europe to Scandinavia. In our opinion, this is another case of the great Teaching spreading among all nations. See further, on this subject, under “Creation of the World,” and “ Deluge,” also p. 87.
1   Ancient-Oriental is better ; we accepted the distinguishing term “ Pan- babylonians ” as a challenge, but the word “Babylonian” should be taken as written with inverted commas.
“ If this date be accepted, we can place a similar phenomenon of transmission in the sixth century B.C., as already noted in another work {Monotheistische Strom- ungen, p. 43 seq.), therefore about the beginning of the age of Aries. Both these world-wide waves of thought foreshadow the universal religion of Christianity.
3   Winckler, F., iii. 274 : “I claim to have established a formula which explains every conception of Babylonian theology. In mathematics a formula is the
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I. THE CREATION
The chief aim of the Ancient-Oriental teaching is to discover and to explain the first cause of visible things. The people who speak to us in the oldest records of Western Asia believed that the universe was created and is ruled bv a deity. Earth, surrounded by ocean and air, is the stage where man, who was made in the image of God, plays his part. But the earth is only a microcosmic image of a celestial world, the “ earth,-> of which is the zodiac, surrounded by Heaven and the heavenly ocean.
Out of this heavenly ocean the present world, like others before it, has emerged, each successively rising out of the primeval waters 1 and building itself from the ruins of the last.
The initial lines of the Babylonian epic Enuma elish (unfortunately defective), which describe the re-creation of the world by Marduk, contain obscure allusions to the aeon immediately preceding the life of man. The form of the teaching is here, as everywhere, mythological; it materialises the ideas and presents them in the persons of gods. For example, in the Babylonian the primeval water is personified in
Apsu and Tiamat
(Waters) (Chaos)
      s
and their son Mummu.
The world completes its cycle and returns to chaos, and out of chaos emerges the new world. Chaos is represented
general expression for the reciprocal connection of isolated facts, which, when it has been stated once for all, explains the phenomenon and settles the question. One may prove the truth of a formula by countless examples, illustrate it and show its practical utility, but when once the root principle has been found, there is nothing further to discover.” I acknowledge the truth of this assertion. My exposition is intended to classify the theological systems of Babylon to a certain extent, and to form an index of documentary references, or proofs drawn from other mythologies, thus making use of the light thrown upon Assyriology by Winckler for the interpretation of Biblical forms of speech and method of teaching.
1   “ The earth was tohu wabohit, and the Spirit of God brooded over Tehom ” (Gen. i. 2). In the ancient Egyptian doctrine of On-Heliopolis, “possessing great authority in the most remote ages ” (Steindorff), the world arose out of the waters Nun. The Babylonian world arose out of Apsu. In an Indian cosmogony the draught of eternal life is made by using the Mountain of the World as a twirling stick in the ocean. The Northern cosmogony shows the world arising from the waters, and so on.
THE CREATION
7
mythologically by the masculine and feminine divinity, whose son (the spiritual principle) weds with his mother.
Damascius1 says, he takes Moymis (Mnmnni) to represent the VOTJTOS Kooy/.os, ‘‘ the intelligible world,” a mental conception of the universe, thus clearly proving that he understood the esoteric teaching of the myth (see Chap. III.). Apsu, the realm of water, from which the world arose, signifies, according to its ideogram, “House of Wisdom.” The Babylonian High School was called, according to V. R. 65, 33a, bit viuvnmi (comp, also IV. R. 23, No. 1, Rev. 25), which is an archaic expression taken from the nomenclature of the primeval world. Mumnni is therefore “Wisdom”
 
FIG. I.—Heaven and Earth, separated by Air (the god Shu). (Egyptian original in the Museum at Turin.)
(Sophia ; comp. Prov. viii.), whose throne is in the waters and from whom proceed the worlds.
From the union of mother and son (Apsu and Mum mu) arises the first world? It is composed of two regions. Lakhmu and
1 Neo-Platonist, temp. Justinian, went to Persia 529 A.D.— Trans, note.
- In an analogous presentment the new world proceeds from the phallus of the Deity. In the doctrine of On, the god Keb (earth) and the goddess Nut (heavens) are united in the waters ; the god Shu (air) separates them by raising up the goddess (see fig. 1, and compare article by Steindorffin the Jahrbuch des Freien deutschen Hochstifis, Frank. a/M., 1904, p. 141). In a third account, also very similar, the vapours rise out of the Underworld (phallus at the door of the Underworld in various mythologies ; notice also that the kingdom of Ea corresponds to the Underworld, p. 14). This explains the dung-beetle (Scarabreus) representing the new life in Egyptian mythology (dung being the element of the Underworld : see Monoth. Slromungen, p. 16 ; B.N.T., 96).
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Lakhamu correspond to the celestial world; Anshar and Kishar to the earthly world in the new aeon. This primeval universe is the stage where the gods play their parts; the world of the Triad, Anu, Bel, and Ea, arises. Ea represents the Kingdom of Waters, and from him proceeds Marduk (Merodach, Jer. 1. 2), by whom the present world was finished after the fight with Tiamat (the Ma’rtess of the old aeon, who reaches over into the new aeon as a destroying power). Here therefore also, the waters appear as First Cause.
Ea and Damkina1 Marduk, the son of Ea.
Damascius says : “ Bel (Marduk), whom they regard as the Creator of the World, is said to have been the son of Aos (Ea).”
When this primeval world was threatened by the dark Power of Chaos (Tiamat with her companions), Marduk cut the Monsters of Chaos in pieces and from these created the present xcorld.2
From a Babylonian record3 of the Creation we learn that this present world is considered as a celestial and an earthly Whole, and that each of these is divided into three regions:4
1.   The celestial world, consisting of—
The Waters of Heaven.
The celestial u Earth11 (zodiac).
The North Heaven (with the north pole of the universe as throne of the summits deus).
2.   The earthly world, consisting of—
The Waters which surround the earth and which we come upon in boring into the earth.
1   The feminine element reappears here ; but note that Damkina is identical with the mother goddess in so far as the latter (for example, as Ishara Kakkab Tamti, “Star of the Sea ”) rises from the ocean.
2   For detail, see Chap. III., where the account given by Damascius, de pr/mis principiis, which fully coincides with the Babylonian texts, is reproduced. In connection with the above deductions, comp. Winckler, F., iii. p. 301 scq. The reading (union of Mummu with Tiamat producing the new world) agreeing with Damascius was already accepted in A.T.A.O., 1st ed., p. 52, on the ground of Stucken's arguments.
3   K. 71, 2nd ed., 93 scq., analysed in Chap. III.
4   Comp. Exod. xx. 4 : “In heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth.”
THE CREATION
9
Earth.
Air,1 The “ pole of the earth11 (markets shame u irtsitim), binds together the earthly and the heavenly All, which hang within each other, as it were.
The Underworld is not a division of the universe in the Babylonian system, but a “place”; therefore Nergal, the God of the Underworld, is not included among the great gods who represent the parts of the universe. The people further recognised a natural division : Heaven, Earth, and Underworld (such is the Biblical cosmography ; see Chap. IV.).
Each of the three kingdoms contains exactly “analogous11 (Babylonian ikb/\ Hellenistic TrapavariWeiv)2 manifestations, and are respectively the special places of manifestation of Ea, Bel, and Anu, or Anil, Bel, and Ea.3
It is not counted upwards, but according to the Kibla4 from above downwards (elisli and shaplish). Therefore it is said in Tablet IV. of the epic Enuma elish : “He caused Anu, Bel, and Ea to enter into their habitations.”
The most important regions are, the celestial earth (zodiac), because the Divine will is specially revealed there, and earth as the abode of man. The celestial earth has therefore, like the terrestrial, three kingdoms: Anu, Bel, and Ea (comp. p. 15, n. 1).
Marduk, who as the son of Ea created the present world after the conquest of the first world (the Power of Darkness, represented as a dragon : Kingu and Tiamat), corresponds to Mum mu in the original cosmos. On the other hand, Muiiimu (I/OJ/TO? KOV/XO? in Damascius) corresponds to Ea himself, and in the new feon the Son is, as it were, the Father re-incarnated.
The emanations of the earthly world will be spoken of later (p. 106), namely: Ea = ilu amelu, the God-man, and Marduk =
1   Here dwell the “spirits who hover in the air.”
2   Comp. Boll, Sphcera, p. 75 seq. ; and in addition Winckler, O.L.Z., 1904, 59 (= Krit. Schr., iii. 96).
3   Each of the three great manifestations of the Deity is complete in itself, and therefore is androgynous. Sometimes the masculine and sometimes the feminine nature appears, or the feminine principle is added to the masculine : Anu and Antum, Bel and Beltu, Ea and Damkina. The word hirtu, “wife ’’(German, Gait in), is ideographically written nin-dingir-ra—that is, Belit-ildni, “ Divine Lady ” (German, Gotterherrin).
4   Kibla, Mohammedan arrangement of the cardinal points : south the most important. — Trans, note.
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Adapa as zer ameluti, “ seed of mankind ”: divinity, hero, and First Man, the future Adam.
The reading of ilu amelu as “ God-man 11 is not absolutely certain here. It might equally well be “ God of man ” in the sense of a protecting deity. But it is to be noted that in the parallelism in IV. R. 7a, Ea is so designated as the father of Marduk (he acts “ for his son’s sake ”). And since Marduk is the Divine man ( = Adapa), Ea is the same in the meaning of the doctrine (compare the passage in IV. Esra quoted p. 97, n. 5 : the Man from the depths of the sea who is to bring deliverance to creation); for the Son is the re-embodiment of the Father.
II. THE ZODIAC
In reconstructing the Babylonian doctrine the most important division of the universe is the Zodiac,1 i.e. that pathway in the heavens, 23^ degrees wide, along which move the sun, moon, and five planets which are visible to the naked eye, whilst the remaining stars appear stationary. To the Babylonians the moling stars serve as interpreters of the Divine will, and in relation to these the whole heaven of fixed stars is as a commentary written along the margin of a book of revelation.
How did they observe the zodiac ?2 The Oriental knows the heavens better than we Northerners. Every evening and morning he may note, thanks to the short twilight, exactly where the moon and the sun rise and set in the sky in relation to the fixed stars. Observation daily continued showed that in about twenty-eight days the same belt of stars invariably passed across the revolving vault, or, in other words, that the moon passes round the same path in the heavens in twenty-eight days. The midday position of the sun (which can be ascertained every twenty-four hours by the corresponding place in the night sky) shows the same phenomenon in a course of 365 days. Thus were fixed the twenty-seven or twenty-eight houses of the moon, and the twelve houses of the sun
1   After Epping (Astronomisckes nnd Babylon), Jensen (Kosmologie), and Hommel had proved the entire zodiac handed on to us from classical times to be of Babylonian origin, Thiele contested their decision (Anlike Himmcls- bilder). Compare the recent refutations of his statements by Hommel, Aufsdtze nnd Abhandlungen, 236 ff. ; Boll, Splicer a, 181 if. ; Kugler, Die baby- lonische Mondreehnung, Freiburg, 1900 ; A. Jeremias, Das Alter der babylonischen Aslronomie, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1909, J. C. Hinrichs.
2   Comp. Das Alter der babylonischen Aslronomie, pp. 42 ff.
 
nezzar I. (about 1300 B.C.).
 

 
12   
which are symbolised by the signs of the zodiac. They saw further that not only the sun and moon, but also the five planets (Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, and Venus), move along this pathway—that is, that they never, in their course, overstep the pathway of the sun and moon. The central line of this pathway marks the orbit of the sun (ecliptic), Ancient-Babylonian pictures (see, for example, fig. 2) of animals ruled over by the sun, moon, and Venus—the Regents of the zodiac—seem to show that the diagram of the stars of this planet course was represented in pictures in prehistoric ages.
“ Sunt aries taurus gemini cancer leo virgo libraque scorpius arcitenens caper amphora pisces.” 1
These are the twelve stages of the sun, which correspond to the twelve revolutions of the moon. They are considered as “ houses” or “thrones” of the Supreme Power revealed in the sun. Each stage is again divided into three, so there are thirty-six divisions formed (decani).2 Another division corresponds to the course of the moon ; the twenty-seven or twenty-eight lunar stages serve for observation of the stars surrounding the Pole Star when they cross the meridian.
The Lunar stages otter startling evidence of the eastward movement of the Babylonian doctrine. Whitney has shown in his work Lunar Zodiac that the twenty-eight houses of the moon of the Arabs, accepted in the Koran, Sura 10. 5, 36, 39 (vuindzil al-Kumar, “moon- harbours ”), the twenty-seven or twenty-eight of Vedic India (naxatra), and the twenty-eight lunar stages of the Chinese (hsin, i.e. “resting-places,” the introduction of which in the Shu-King is attributed to the mythical Emperor Yao), though modified by different characteristics, are yet all three traceable to a common origin.
Their source in Babylonia was asserted by Weber (Bert. Ah. der JVissensch. phil. Kl., I860 and lS6l), and long before him by Stern in the Gottinger Gelehrte Anzeigen, 1S40 (Anzeige von Ideler, Chronologic der Chinesen). Richthofen (China, i. p. 404) accepts the conjecture, and says : “ Here we face one of the most remarkable
1   In calendars with an intercalary month, the raven sitting on a pole is inserted as a thirteenth sign (hence it is a bird of ill omen).
2   See Enuma elish, Tablet V.: “Twelve months, the stars in three divisions (?) ” (see p. 31), V. R, 46, where the thirty-six are enumerated with the lunar stages. The same in Egypt, proved by Hommel, G.G.G., p. 128, n. 3. Diodorus (ii. 30) describes the astral gods of Babylon, and after enumerating the seven planets that move along the zodiac, he gives the thirty-six decani (not lunar stages, as Winckler assumes in Geschichle Is7-aels, ii. 61). Besides these, there is a group of thirty-six stars (his thirty is a copyist’s error), called by them counselling gods. Half of these are appointed guardians of places above the earth, (the other) half of places below the earth, so that they overlook all that passes among mankind or in the heavens. A messenger is sent from the lower half to the upper, and conversely, every ten days.
THE ZODIAC
13
problems of prehistoric ages, namely, the intercourse of nations.” The astronomer Kugler, in his book on Babylonian lunar reckonings, founded on the records, has shown the resemblance between Greek, Chinese, Indian, and Babylonian astronomy. Later we shall point out indications that the transmission of the idea must have taken place in the age of Taurus. The twenty-eight stellar houses of the zodiac in Persian astronomy form the last link eastwards from Western Asia, even if the documentary evidence in Bundehesch (vi. 3-15 Westergaard) is of a later date. With regard to Canaan, 2 Kings xxiii. 5, Mazzalot (which elsewhere means a zodiacal sign, for example Tar gum Esth. iii. 7) and Mazarot, Job xxxviii. 22, possibly come into consideration.
The science of the zodiac can be traced in the records back to the age of Taurus, i.e. the period when at the spring equinox the sun stood in the sign of Taurus. Mythological motifs connecting the beginning of a new era with Gemini (Dioscuros myths) indicate that the zodiac was devised in the age of the Twins.1 A planisphere from the library of Assurbanipal, based upon ancient calculations, and accepted by Sayce as such, shows a graduation of the sun’s course, and marks for the zero point a point between the Bull and the Twins ("Scorpions’ Star, 70 degrees”).2 The twrelve tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh 3 seem to correspond to the cycle of the zodiacal signs. Also Babylonian boundary stones show pictures of the sun, moon, and five planets, which, to a certain extent, seem to refer to the zodiac (see figs. 2-5). An order of zodiacal signs corresponding to the Age of the Ram from pre- Greek times has been determined by Epping.4
The Babylonian name for the Zodiac is Shupuk shame (literally, " the piling up of heaven” ).5 Any doubt as to its meaning is incomprehensible in face of the fact that w'e have inscriptions giving a clear definition of this expression. In IV. R. 5, w'hen the order of the world was threatened by hostile powers, the sun, moon, and Venus were set by Bel to rule over the Shupuk shame ("Shupuk
1   Comp. Das Alter der babylonischen Astronomic, pp. 49 fif. Egyptian reckonings which go back to an age of " Cancer ” are merely fabulous chronology.
2   See Hommel, Aufsiitze and Abhandluugen, p. 354 set].
3   According to the most prevalent view, they correspond to the order beginning with Aries, like the Babylonian months ; the second being Taurus, and the eleventh “ the Curse of Rain ” (Water-bearer, Aquarius). Traces of nomenclature according to the age of Taurus are extant; see Hommel, loc. cit., 355 (after Sayce). See Izdubar-Nimrod (Leipzig, Taubner, 1891), p. 66 seq. In connection with the literature quoted therein, of greatest importance are Hommel, Aufsdtze und Abhandluugen, 350 seq., and his quotations from the works of Sayce ; also Epping, Astronomisehes aits Babylon.
* Astronomisehes ans Babylon, 1S2, 190. Recapitulated in Hommel, loc. cit., 23S seq.
5   The ecliptic is called ‘‘path of the sun.” See Hommel, Aufsiitze und Abhandluugen, p. 356 (Sayce), e.g. III. R. 53. 56 seq.
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shame ana shuteshuru ukinu ”). Where do the sun, moon, and Venus rule? In the zodiac: it is the pathway upon which they move : compare also the boundary stones ; on them we find pictures of the zodiacal signs, with the sun, moon, and Venus above them. An-Tir-an-na is possibly another name for the zodiac. It is said, for example (Asarh. vi. 6), of the half circle over the door of Sargon’s palace, which is decorated with genii ascending or descending between rosettes, that it is “ like An-Tir-an-na” (comp. Meissner and Rost, A.B., iii. 214). This may be an allusion to the half circle of the zodiac or to the rainbow which is mythologically related to it (see “ Rainbow ” in Index). In an inscription of Shamash-shum-ukin’s it is said that after the victory the soldiers danced to music like An-Tir-an-na ; this can surely mean nothing
 
FIG. 6.—Arch {sillu) from the gate ot Sargon’s palace.
else than (whip)-"tops,” which in fact would present a picture of the whirling, sounding spheres (music of the spheres).
The Rulers of the Zodiac are
Sin   Shamash   Ishtar.
According to the law of “analogy” they become Ann   Bel   Ea.
According to the ancient Babylonian conception, time is equal to space. Anu, Bel, and Ea represent space, the cosmos ; Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar represent time, the cycle. (Compare now F. X. Kugler, Entzoickehmg der babylonischen Planetenlundc.) Sin, the moon, is like Anu, father of the gods and summits dens; Shamash, like Bel, reigns over the zodiac and manifests himself in the star “ towards which the world of man looks.” Ishtar corresponds with Ea, for the Underworld
THE ZODIAC
15
and Apsu coincide. (In the character of Storm-god, Ishtar is replaced by Aclad-Rcnnman.) Beyond the ocean lies the Underworld.
The zodiac represents the pathway of the earth’s yearly movement, and the zodiacal figures in their course sink into the ocean and rise again ;1 therefore each of the three rulers represents in turn the Divine power manifested in this circle. In mythological phenomena which mirror the course of life, or of the world, it should always be noted whether the respective characteristics are those of sun, moon, or Ishtar; they vary according to place, time, and form of worship. But though each part in itself can reflect the complete Divine power, yet the three oftenest appear as a triad, and the course of the earth’s revolution is then pictured as a battle between sun and moon, whilst Ishtar “strives to become Queen of Heaven.”2
In addition to the three Rulers of the Zodiac, the four more distant planets were known to antiquity (Babyl. mutaH/ku, those who run): Marduk, Nebo, Ninib, and Nergal, that is, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn ;3 and as these seven (see fig. 74) move over the Shitpuk shame, the zodiac, in different orbits and in different periods of time,5 the zodiac is represented
1   The upper part (of the zodiac), according to Enuma elish V., is the kingdom of Nibiru (i.e. here = Anu, see p. 2l); the southern part, the kingdom of Ea (compare Amphora, Pisces) ; a third part is the dominion of Bel. In another conception the path of Anu, Bel, and Ea along the zodiac is mentioned.
2   For details connected with this paragraph, see p. 39.
3   Comp. Hommel, Aufsdtze und Abhandlungen, 373 seq. For the planets in order of succession and their relation to the days of the week, see p. 43 seq. !tThe seven planets govern the world,” say the “Ssabians” according to Dimeshki, c. 10 (Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier it. der Ssabismus, ii. 400); compare especially the Nabatean writings of Maqrisi, ibid., p. 609 seq.
4   These are the actual planets, not the seven “ chief gods ” (Hommel).
5   R. Redlich in Globus, 1903, No. 23 seq., maintains the extreme antiquity of exact astronomical science in Babylonia, but endeavours to prove that the “path” of the sun, moon, and moving stars did not originally mean the ecliptic, but that all these orbits were measured out in the centre of the heavens within the greatest circle of their daily course around the sky, and that accordingly the supposed signs of the zodiac on so-called boundary stones are connected with the celestial equator. The existence of the whole mythological system, based entirely on astronomical variations, completely disproves this view. Still, we consider it is quite possible that in the popular conception the zodiac was replaced by the celestial equator, because the heavenly mountain with the many-storied tower would stand straight on the (celestial) equator, whereas on the ecliptic it appears
16   
as seven diminishing circles,1 rising one above the other, like a gigantic tower of steps.
These circles are the seven UB (tubiikati),2 corresponding to the seven parallel zones upon which the Earthly Kingdom is depicted as a mountain.
The seventh step leads into the highest heaven, that of the god Ami. The step circles, like the zodiac, have twelve “stages,’1 in this corresponding to the twelve gates of Heaven.
 
Asshur and   Antum Marduk Nebo? Shamash Adad Ishtar
Anu   =Saturn? =Mars
= ne
FIG. 7.—Babylonian planetary gods, upon the rocks at Maltaya.
Sometimes there are eight heavens, as in the Temple of Bel, the Anu-heaven—later the fixed-star heaven—being then
slanting to the observer. Comp. Das Alter der babylonischen Astronomie, 2nd ed., pp. 44 ff., where the cosmic identity of the step-tower with the double- peaked Mountain of the World is also stated (pp. 47 f.).
1   The names of the step-towers give evidence of their cosmic character (Temple of the Fifty at Lagash ; E-Ur-(gin-me)-vii-an-ki, “Temple of the seven transmitters of the commands of heaven and earth.” Comp, further n. 2.) The ascent was partly by steps, partly by a spiral. In my opinion, this answers the questions raised by Delitzsch under the word shubuk in his dictionary. The circles of steps reappear in the sephiroth of the Kabbala. Seven of these (three of them correspond to the Divinity) are expressly connected with the planets. The seven sephiroth are also called the “seven sounds.” They vat the notes of the octave. The movement of the seven planets makes the harmony of the spheres.
2   Comp., for example, Gudea Cyl. D. 2, 11 ; G. I, 13: Temple E-Ub-vii-an- ki, “ Temple of the seven 216 of heaven and of earth.” The tubuk&ti correspond to the seven tabaMt of the Koran, as Jensen had already discovered by philological inference (Kosmologie, p. 175, n. 3), although he had no idea of their actual pictorial form. Winckler, Geschichte Israels, ii. p. 10S, n. 6, recognised the fundamental likeness. This discovery considerably modifies the conclusions of Zimmern, K.A.T., 3rd ed., 615. Upon the steps up to heaven, comp. 1 Tim. iii. 13.
THE ZODIAC
17
included.1 For nine heavens, for instance in the Edda,2 and in the later Chinese Porcelain Tower, the southern heaven is counted in. Therefore, together with the Temple Towers of seven stages, as for example in Bor- sippa, representing the seven- planet system, we find also towers of three stages (for example, in Nippur) (see fig. 8), and of five stages (compare the picture on the garment of the god, fig. 47), representing the three kingdoms of the universe, through which
the highest heaven is entered.
 
FIG. 8.—Three- or four-storied temple tower. Relief from Kouyunjik.
Throughout the whole Eastern world we find both seven and three heavens.3 Mohammed travels through seven heavens ; the
Bab)donian Talmud, and the fragments of Celsus speak of seven heavens.1 Approach to the Deity is by the ladder of seven planet circles in the heavens in the Nabattean book of El-maqrisi. The threestoried representation of the universe passed into the Gnostic systems from Oriental mythology, and was continued into the dramatic Mysteries of the Middle Ages.
 
FIG. 9.—Babylonian map of the world. Brit. Mus. 82-7-14, 509.
1   The sidratu'l muntahd of the Arabs ; see O.L.Z.,   1904, col. 103
( = Kritische Schriften, iii. no). Comp. F., iii. 3I2> 41^; M.V.A.G., 1901, 306 ; and Hommel, Aufsatze und Abhandlungen, 373 seq. Divisions of steps 9, 8, 7, etc., among the Sabseans ; see Chwolsohn, ii. 34, 243, 673.
2   My reading of the nio lieimar in Voluspa is thus, as opposed to Golther, Germanische Mythologic, 519 seq., “ Whosoever hath passed through the nine heimar knoweth all things.”
3   Comp. B.N.T., chap. vii. (the three and seven heavens). Comp, further Gen. xxviii. (the ladder to heaven).
4   Origen contra Celswn, chap, vi., 22; see Ed. Bischoff, Im Reiche der
VOL. I.   2
18   
The meaning of the seven Nagft of the “ Babylonian Map ” (fig. 9, and compare Peisers’ deductions in Z.A., iv. p. S6l) is not clear to me. The plan of site seems to be connected with the Flood, and in any case the seven triangles may represent the corresponding parts of the celestial causeway and the waters surrounding the earth, and they are connected with the seven circles of the Shupnk which are plunged into the celestial ocean. Perhaps also the seven seas of Indian cosmology may be taken into consideration and the seven islands in the sea of the book of Enoch, vi. 77, comp. Jensen, Kosmologie, p. 179, and in addition, Winckler, Gesch. Isr.} ii. p. 109.
The seven Interpreters,1 besides, are sometimes clifferently grouped together: 2 + 5 instead of 3 + 4. Diodorus Siculus, ii. 80, before he deals with the decani, speaks of the five planets, carefully distinguished by the Chaldeans from the sun and moon and held by them to be Interpreters of the Divine Will.2 Venus then gives up her position as great stellar divinity, equal with sun and moon, and joins the ranks of the other planets; as for example in the order of our week-days she takes her place last but one: Friday, vendredi (Veneris dies), between the days of Mercury (mercrcdi) and Saturn (Saturday).
The planet lists of AssurbanipaTs library run as follows (II. R. 48. 48 ff. a, b; III. R. 5. 65 ff. a)
Sin (Moon).
Shamash (Sun).
Dunpauddua (Mercury or Jupiter).
Dilba.t (Venus).
Sagush-Kaki'an (Mars or Saturn).
Gudud (Jupiter or Mercury).
Zalbatanu (Saturn or Mars).
Gnosis, 131. For Maqrisi, see Chwolsohn, ii. 609 seq. The Egyptian Ladder of Osiris and the Ladder of Seven Metals in the Mithraic religion harmonise with this idea. The five steps of the Manichman Bima correspond to five heavens (five planets, see p. 3S). See Bischoff, loc. cit., 79, 90.
1 Bab. UB, see p. 16, n. 2 ; Greek kp^vds. Comp. Winckler, F., iii. 198 ; Alter Orient, iii. 213, 25. Comp, also I. i. p. 10. It is remarkable that the observation of the movements of the planets created the Ancient-Oriental conception ; the renewed observation of the planet courses by Copernicus is the basis of the modern conception.
2   These five planets with their respective elements and colours play an important part in Chinese geomancy ; see pp. 52, 53, etc. (Index, under “ China ”). Each of the five is both masculine and feminine, and therefore counts double, as, e.g., in the week of ten days still used in China. Two days are given to each planet.

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Re: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST (sumer) I
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THE ZODIAC
19
In order to make the following clearer, a few astronomical phenomena may be mentioned here, and compare therewith fig. 10. Sunrise is on an average four minutes later every day. This gives a spiral line of 180 circles from solstice to solstice. The rising and setting points of the sun describe a circular line on the horizon, the mid-day point a corresponding circular line in the heavens. Twelve times a year the moon’s orbit shows the same phenomena. The full moon stands in opposition to
 
the sun ; therefore in winter, when the sun is moving through the lower zodiacal signs, the full moon is in the upper signs, and in summer the positions are reversed. When it is full moon at midnight of the summer solstice the sun touches its lowest point. When the sun is at the winter solstice point, and a dark moon begins at the same time, the sun and moon meet in the Underworld ; i.e. they are both in the lower signs of the zodiac. At the vernal equinox at sunrise, 6 a.m., the full moon sets in the west. At sunset of the autumn equinox, 6 p.m., the full moon rises in the east.
The ancients thought the eclipse of sun or moon to be a swallowing
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up by the dragon of one or the other.1 IV. R. 5 shows that the Babylonians knew the importance of the sun’s light to the moon; but, as the sun also swallows up all the stars., he himself sometimes figures as a dragon in the myths. They noted that in 18 years and 10 or 11 days eclipses were repeated in the same order, and recognised the connection between this phenomenon and the moon’s course. In 27 days 7 hours 13 minutes the moon moves once round the fixed-star heaven, crossing the sun’s orbit in an "ascending” ("head of the dragon”) and a "descending ” ("tail of the dragon ”) node. At the one point of intersection there may be eclipse of the sun and at the other of the moon. In each rotation these nodes move backwards about three breadths of the moon towards the west; this is observable by means of the fixed stars with the naked eye. In 1S3-5 years the nodes have completed a circle backwai-ds. There are therefore three movements to distinguish in the moon’s course : (l) The sidereal revolution from one fixed star back to the same star again = 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes ; (2) the synodic revolution from the sun back again to the sun (which in the meantime has moved backwards about 2 days 5 hours I minute) = 2f) days 12 hours 44 minutes ; (3) the Dragon month, from one ascending or descending node on the sun’s orbit to the next corresponding one, which meantime has retrograded 2 hours 3S minutes towards the west = 27 days 5 hours 5 minutes. The retrogression of the nodes explains the 18-vear periods of the eclipses.2 Solar eclipse takes place when the moon is in proximity to the sun and at the same time reaches a node ; thus, when a synodic and a Dragon month begin simultaneously. The Babylonians reckoned (the Chinese possessed the same knowledge) that 223 synodic months make 242 Dragon months, that is, 6585 days, or 18 years 10 or 11 days. Thales, taught by the Chaldeans, calculated by this means the solar eclipse of May 2S, 585 B.C.
The time of revolution of the seven planets3 (including sun and moon). The movement of the five true planets is in the form of a loop. Variation from the circle is small.
1.   The Moon. For her revolution see above. She does not move more than 10 degrees away from the ecliptic.
2.   Mercun) is morning and evening star, and is therefore also sometimes called Dilbat. It is only visible when twilight is
1   A myth of the fight between the moon and the seven evil spirits (Powers of the Underworld) is translated Chap. II., under "Sin.” On a boundary stone from Susa the new moon and the sun appear as one, together with the picture of the eight-rayed Venus; see A. Jeremias, article on "Shamash” in Roscher’s Lexikon der Mythologie.
- Comp. Das Alter der bahylonischen Astrononiie, 2nd ed.
A unity of seven planetary gods is certainly to be assumed as already existing in ancient Babylonia. Sun, moon, and Venus are the ruling triad in the ancient records ; Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn make their appearance together as mythical gods in the Babylonian story of the Deluge.
THE CULMINATING POINT OF THE UNIVERSE 21
short.1 It completes the circle round the ecliptic in one year and one day.
3.   Feints, like Mercury, always in close proximity to the sun, appears as morning and evening star, and in 1 year and 7 months moves again into the same position in regard to the sun. Her revolution approaches nearest to the sun’s orbit.
4.   Mars takes 2 years 49 days to return to his original position. The remarkable red colour contributes to its character as the planet of misfortune.
5.   Jupiter, the brightest star after Venus, passes on an average through one zodiacal stage every year. The Babylonians possibly knew its satellites.
6.   Saturn’s revolution takes 29| years. The movement is so slow it can only be observed in the neighbourhood of bright, fixed stars.
III.   THE CULMINATING POINT OE THE UNIVERSE
1.   Xibiru
In the Babylonian epos Marduk at the building of the worlds places “ the Manzaz, the standing-place of Nibiru,” in order to form the “ knot ”2 of the courses of the stars. The solstice point in the cycle is this Nibiru : in the cosmic picture it is the “ Pass” between the two peaks of the Mountain of the World, above which the summits dens is enthroned.3
This summits dcus may be especially :—
1. Jmt, as in the fifth tablet of the epic Enuma elish, where the zodiac is divided between Anu, Bel, and Ea, and the uppermost part is given to Anu, corresponding to his throne in the north heaven when the universe is divided into three parts. In the text of the deluge story the heaven of Anu is the highest heaven.
1 Had the ancients optical instruments? and can we thus explain their observations of Mercury (?) and Venus in different phases, the moons of Jupiter (?), etc. ? The invention of the telescope in A. D. 160S may mean the rediscovery of a miracle of civilisation lost for thousands of years.
- Compare the eight- or sixteen-rayed ideogram for God, which, according to Jensen and Zimmern, denotes the meeting of the meridians at the celestial pole. See p. 50, n. I.
3   Upon Nibiru, properly “ pass,” as solstitial point, compare the evidence cited upon the culmination of Marduk. Upon the cosmic Nibiru, compare the following section upon the Mountain of the World, and what has been said upon Sichern, p. 24, n. 4. On the Greek race-course, which had a cosmic meaning (comp. Zech. vi. 1 ff.), the pass which the runners passed through between meta and the boundary corresponded to Nibiru.
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2.   Ninib. In division of the zodiac into four or two dominions (the latter counting by the solstices) the north point, the turning-point of the summer solstice (which, following the law of analogy, corresponds in the zodiac to the north point of the universe), belongs to Ninib. Therefore the step tower of Lagash, dedicated to Ningirsu-Ninib, is called “ House of the Fifty 11; “ fifty11 signifying, however, the completion of the circle (see p. 32). Ninib is therefore called miikil markets shame u irtsitim, “ overseer of the pole of heaven and earth.”
3.   Shi, who as full moon reaches its highest point at the north when the sun stands in opposition at the southern point of the universe (belonging then to the sun). For the moon, because of its continual return to life, suggesting resurrection from the dead, is held in antithesis to the sun, in whose light the stars disappear. Hence results the equation already found, which under certain circumstances identifies Anu, Ninib, and Sin. See article on “ Ram man ” in RoscheFs Lexikon der Mijthologie.
4.   Adad-Ramman, God of Storm, in so far as, under certain circumstances he, “the GU-GAL of heaven and earth,1'’appears, like Ninib, as summits deus.
5.   Marduk (Merodach) as summits deus, Demiurgos, representative of the circle of the universe. (V. R. 46. 34c; comp. II. R. 54, No. 5, obv. col. 11. 6.) In the last tablet of the epic Enuma elish it is said of him:
“ The Kirbish-Tiamat he strode through, without resting; His name be Nibiru, which contains [the middle] ;
He who fixes the courses of the stars of heaven,
Like sheep shall pasture the gods all together.11
As Nibiru, Marduk is also designated by the number 50, being the number representing the complete circle. The statement of the Astronomical Text, III. R. 54, No. 5, agrees with this : “ When the star of Marduk stands in the centre (kabal) of the heavens, he is called Nibiru.”l
1   Comp. p. 85, when Marduk, manifested in twelve forms in the month of Teshrit, also bears the name of Nibiru (III. R. 53, 8i£). The passage refers to a calendar according to which the year, and therefore the orbit of the universe,
THE CULMINATING POINT OF THE UNIVERSE 23
As Nibiru, Marduk is identical with Ninib in the Babylonian doctrine, and Ninib again is identical with the “Canaanite” Adad- Ramraan (Teshup of the Hittites, German Thor), the god with double hammer and shafts of forked lightning (see Chap. II., under Ramman)d The northern point of the ecliptic, which in the age of Taurus was in Leo, corresponds to the Fire Kingdom (zenith of the sun’s course, region of meteoric showers) ; hence the mythological character of this divinity as <! the smith.” Also it is the turning-point of the moon’s course (motif of lameness).2 The fiery passage, known also to the Gnostics (Purgatory!), led into the
 
FIG. 11.—Shamash the Sun-god entering the eastern gate of heaven. (Seal cylinder No. 89,110 of the Brit. Mus.)
2. The Double-peakecl Mountain of the World
The culminating point of the celestial “ earth 'n (the zodiac) appears in Babylonian mythology as a double-peaked mountain. Above this mountain is the vault of the north heaven with the north pole of the universe, which was held to be the throne of the .summits dews. Corresponding to cycle and cosmos, the cosmic throne of God appears also as a double-peaked mountain. “ Scientifically the two peaks correspond to the highest points of the monthly lunar and yearly solar orbit.3 The corre-
began in autumn, and yet in which Jupiter-Marduk retained the role of beginner of the cycle, which, properly speaking, belonged to Mercury-Nebo (comp. p. 26).
1   Comp. Donar in Donnerstag, in place of Jupiter (jeudi, [ovis dies).
?? Comp. H. Winckler, F., iii. 82 ; M. V.A.G., 1901, 356. Details, p. 31.
3 Upon this, see description and drawing in Das Alter des babylonischen Astro- nomie, 2nd ed., pp. 16 f., where there is a picture of the Babylonian double-peaked mountain with the Deity standing above the summit. Winckler’s idea of the defile between two mountains, and of the peaks as antipodal points of the universe, can hardly be correct (F., iii. 306; M. V.A.G., X901, 241 f.).
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sponding points on the horizon give further the two-peaked “ Mountain of the East ” and “ Mountain of the West.” In the winter solstice the sun sets at the lowest, while the full moon rises at the highest point of the horizon ; in the summer solstice the reverse.1
Since the earth and every country upon it correspond as a
microcosmos to the celestial picture, it follows that the “ Mountain of Countries ” {hcir- mg kurkura, .'shad matati), the summit of the earthly universe, must be a double mountain. In the myth the two peaks correspond to the two trees in the cosmic sanctuary (Paradise), one signifying Life, the other Death ; compare Helios and Selene as centre, i.e. summit
FIG. 12.—Sun and moon as summit of 0f the zodiac, and Dodekaoros the zodiac and Dodekaoros upon an
Egyptian marble plate.2   on an Egyptian marble .'slab
(fig. 12), and also the trees Helios and Selene, found by Alexander as substitute for the Deity in Paradise.3
Each country as microcosmos has its own double-peaked “ Mountain of the World.” In the Biblical presentation this is particularly obvious in Ebal and Gerizim, Deut. xi. 29, xxvii. 12, the most ancient places of worship on Israelite territory, where six tribes (corresponding to six “ houses ” of the zodiac, symbolising the half of the sun’s orbit) stood upon the Mount of Blessing (Gerizim), and six stood opposite upon the Mount of Cursing (Ebal).1
1   Fig. n possibly shows the mountain, with the Sun-god emerging from between the two peaks. Compare the two mountains in Zech. vi. 1-7, from between which the four chariots come forth, drawn by four spans of horses, which are the four corners of the world. The original myth had four horses to one chariot.
2   See Boll, Sp/nera, table vi.
3   Winckler, O.L.Z., 1904, 103 (= Kritische Schriften, iii. 110): Geschichte Israels, ii. 108 ; II. V.A. G., 1901, 306, 345. Further, on the Coptic tablet, p. 64, fig. 22, the circle of the universe (recognisable by the serpent and the four animals representing the corners of the world) has the sun and moon for its centre.
1 Upon the land as microcosmos, see pp. 53 ff. For the signs of the zodiac as
 
THE FOUR POINTS OF THE UNIVERSE 25
IV.   THE FOUR POINTS OF THE UNIVERSE
The orbits of the moon and of the sun are divided, like the non-circumpolar stars, into two natural halves by the arch of day and night (see fig. 10). The points of intersection at the beginning of each six months are characterised as the vernal and autumn points of the sun and also by certain stages of the moon’s course.
In the zodiacal age, i.c. by calendar reckoning starting from the vernal equinox in the sign of Taurus, the east point is very probably Aldebaran, brightest star in the Hyades, a group belonging to the constellation Taurus, and the west point is in Scorpio,1 almost certainly the star Antares, about 180 degrees distant from Aldebaran. These two stars represent in ancient astronomy the first and fourteenth lunar stages, thus dividing the twenty-eight stages, which are otherwise at varying distances, into equal halves.
This double division, by the halves of the moon’s orbit and by the equinoctial points,'2 corresponds to another division of the cycle according to the solstices, which shows the “arch of day and the arch of night,” i.c. the visible and invisible part of the zodiac differently (for the geographical latitude of Babylonia, 5 : 7). This bipartition appears to be the more ancient in Babylonia. The combination of the two divisions gives a quartering of the zodiac into the seasons with four cosmic critical points. Now, according to the Babylonian conception,
symbols of the Twelve Tribes, see Gen. xlix. : also the symbolism of the Tabernacle.”
The sun and moon as the points of life and death (pp. 30, 34 ff.) correspond respectively each to six signs of the zodiac of summer and winter. Upon the meaning of Sinai and Horeb, Mountain of the Moon and Mountain of the Sun, Ebal and Gerizim, see Winckler, F., iii 360 ff. The name Sichem (Shekem) has a cosmic meaning ; it signifies the same thing as the Babylonian name discussed on p. 21, ‘ pass,” “ highway.” The rupture of the tradition between Sinai and Horeb perhaps arose when the meaning of the double-peaked mountain (Sinai = moon, Horeb = sun) was no longer understood. Near Tokyo a double-peaked mountain is the holy place of the Creator brother and sister of the Shinto religion ; they correspond to sun and moon.
1   In the epic of Gilgamesh the Underworld is guarded by scorpion-headed men. - Shil/cuht, i.e. “hold the scales,” for example, III. R. 51, is the technical expression for equinox.
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the Divine Power manifests itself in the four critical points.1 Since each of the three great star Divinities which rule over the zodiac manifests himself likewise in two half or four quarter phenomena (moon and Venus as true planets have always four phases, and the seasons of the year serve as phases of the sun), the points are suitable places for an embodiment of the Divine Power. And as the sun, moon, and Venus always have a critical point (apogee or turning-point of the orbit), a certain point of the zodiac belongs to each of the four “phases” as special place of manifestation in the universe.
Since in the three thousand years of history known to us the constellations have passed through great changes, it follows of necessity that a mythology founded upon phenomena of the stellar system must also undergo change. And it being a question of a circle completing itself in the antitheses of night and day, summer and winter (summer and winter of the universe), there arises the principle that the antitheses in course of time change places. In the age of Hammurabi (Babylon's supremacy) the four chief points of the solar orbit were apportioned as follows : 2
Marduk: Morning, Spring ) East and North, the two light
Ninib :   Mid-day, Summer ) halves of the year "and day.
Nebo :   Evening, Autumn ) West and South, the two night
Ncrgal: Night, Winter ) halves of the year and day.
Accordingly, therefore, to Marduk belongs the Morning of the Spring equinox (sunrise of the Spring sun on 21st March, 6 a.m.); to Nebo, the evening of the Autumn equinox (21st September, 6 p.m.); to Ninib, the Summer solstitial point (21st June, 12 midday : from that time the sun sinks into Winter and the Realm of Death ; this is the turning-point, the Tammuz point); to Nergal, the Winter solstitial point (21st December, midnight: from then the sun again ascends).3
1   Three, when the Underworld point is omitted ; for example, three pillars of heaven among the Sabaeans (Chwolsohn, ii. 6): East, Centre (of the heavens), and West.
2   A fifth direction, upwards, was possibly represented by Venus, who is united with sun and moon in the Triad, but who appears, on the other hand, as belonging together with the four planets. The character of Venus as Queen of Heaven would correspond to her character as “upward direction.”
3   This “exchange in the order of the planets” demonstrated by Winckler and Hommel has been vehemently disputed by Kugler, loc. cit. See upon this my deductions in A.B.A., 2nd ed., pp. 76 ff.
THE FOUR POINTS OF THE UNIVERSE 27
In periods preceding the age of Hammurabi, as in the epochs after the destruction of Babylonian supremacy, the order was reversed for reasons which should be clear from the following deductions:
Jupiter (Gudud-Marduk) takes the place of Mercury (Nebo).
Mercury (Dunpauddua-Nebo) takes the place of Jupiter (Marduk).
Mars (Keiwan-Ninib) takes the place of Saturn (Nergal).
Saturn (Zalbatanu-Nergal) takes the place of Mars (Ninib).
These chief points of the zodiac answer according to the law of parallels (zodiac as celestial microcosmos) to the four corners of the world.1 In so far as they refer to the zodiac, the summit of which is seat of the summus deus, they are the four supporters of the throne of the summus deus, and they appear embodied in the corresponding figures of the zodiac: Taurus (bull), Leo (lion), Eagle,2 Man,3 (Aquarius).
In this we find the explanation of the Merkaba4 (four beasts,
1   The earth has four corners to correspond, whence come the four winds. See Rev. vii. i.
2   The eagle is the bird of the summus deus. Compare the eagle on the shield of Ningirsu (Index, under “ Eagle’'), the eagle in the cosmic picture of the world, (fig. 13), the eagle of Jupiter of the classic period, the eagle in the Mithraic mysteries (see Monotheist.-Stromungen, p. 17); further, Rev. viii. 13, the eagle at the sound of the four trumpets (motif of Marduk-Jupiter, see B.N.T., pp. 25 f.). The sign of the Eagle is between Aquarius and Capricorn, a part of the heavens where very bright stars show, and not far from the zodiac. It might very probably be included in the actual signs of the zodiac on account of Acair, the brilliant star in the Eagle. Comp. A.B.A., 2nd ed., p. 4S f. ; Zimmern, K.A.T., iii. 6S1 f. ; and (differing) Winckler, F., iii. 299 ff. In the course of time the Eagle deviates further from the region of the zodiac ; Winckler, F., iii. 297, differing further.
Probably corresponding to Scorpio and Arcitenens, represented as one picture by the Babylonians (comp. Izdubar-Nimrod, p. 67), with which compare the Scorpion-men in the epic of Gilgamesh, who guard the Underworld, and to whom, therefore, the autumn point of the cycle corresponds. Also Amphora, Water-bearer (Aquarius of Manilius and Ovid), may be considered. Note that the First Man (Adapa) rises from the ocean, and that Ea ( = i/u ameln) is god and man. See Chap. III., under “Creation of Man.” Comp, also Heuzey, Rev. d. Ass. el d'Arch. Orient., pp. 129 ff., and Homrnel, G.G.G., 227, n. 7, where the Fishman is made equivalent to the ilu-amelu of the mythological texts and to Aquarius in the zodiac.
4   The Merkaba is the heavenly throne or chariot of Ezekiel; Ma’asch Merkaba, the lore concerning the chariot. Many references to this occur in rabbinical sayings. Thus Sandalfon (“the angel of prayer,” see Longfellow) is
28   
tetrarnorph) of Ezekiel and of the throne with the four beasts, surrounded by the sea of glass (Rev. iv. 6; comp. B.N T., 13)— and of the symbols of the four Evangelists (according to Irenseus, adv.
luer., 3. 11, the four pillars of the world ; see B.X. T., 87). The order, Matthew, bull; Mark, lion; Luke, man; John, eagle, corresponds to right, left, below, above. In Ezekiel the bull is to the left, therefore the Kibla is e: oriented” to the south (comp. p. 32) ; in front, man (beginning of the world, see p. 6); behind, the lion (Fireflood in Leo, the north point); right, eagle. For detail see Ezek.
i.   4 ff. Fig. 13 shows the zodiac and the corners of the world in the Grecian age : Jupiter (highest at the north point), Neptune, Mars, and Mercury. The Coptic picture reproduced on p. shows sun and moon in the middle of the circle of the universe symbolised by the snake and four beasts. See p. 24, n. 3.
 
DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE OE THE ARRANGEMENT OK THE “CORNERS OF THE WORLD'1 IN THE ZODIACAL AGE
There is no text which says Marduk-Jupiter corresponds to east, Nebo to west, etc. ; the evidence is gathered from the sense of the calendars and from mythology, yet there are occasional instances of cuneiform statements
said to stand behind the Merkaba. The Hekalot or books of Enoch are called Merkaba.
A vision of the Merkaba was brought about by fasting. The ascetics who attained to this vision were thought to ride in the chariot of the Merkaba. The idea of the ride is of Mithraic origin.
THE FOUR POINTS OF THE UNIVERSE 29
1.   Marduk = the Spring or East Point
The spring or east point belongs in the historical age of Babylon to Marduk, for Marduk’s festival is the New Year feast, festival of the spring equinox. Of the four planets amongst whom the corners of the world were divided, the New Year’s point probably belonged in a prehistoric age to Mercury, whose name Nabu,
-c Foreteller,” characterises him as Morning Star, therefore as bringer of the new day, of the new age, of the new cycle. The year must, according to this, have begun in autumn. Under the dominion of Babylon, Marduk, whose planet Jupiter has its ruling point at the east point of the universe, became the Bringer of the New' Age. In K. 759 (Thompson’s Reports, No. 1S9) it is said:
“ When" the star of Marduk is seeu in the beginning of the year, the growth of plants will thrive that year.” This star is Jupiter. When Mercury is praised as the New Year star of good fortune in other texts (Kugler, Sfernkunde, vol. ii.), it corresponds to the older teaching. Upon this, and especially upon the exchange in the roles of Marduk and Nebo, see A.B.A., ‘2nd ed., pp. )6 ff. ; in addition also p. JO, n. 2.
2.   Xeho at the Autumn or West. Point1
A text dating from the Arsacid age (250 B.C.-2S0 A.D.), but which certainly reflects ancient ideas (for in later times they did not invent such things, only speculated about them), says that at the winter solstice the “daughters of Ezida” (priestesses of the temple of Nebo at Borsippa) remove to the “ House of Day ” (i.e. the temple of Marduk of Babylon) “to lengthen the days,” and that in the summer solstice the “daughters of Esagil ” remove to the “House of Night” (i.e. the temple of Nebo of Borsippa) “to shorten the days ” : that is to say, the light half of the year, the east point, belongs to Marduk, the dark half to Nebo; and at the equinox each one solemnly abdicates his rule to the other.2 Theocritus hands down to us the same astral mythological idea (Id., xv. 103,
1   Compare the Greek Hermes (Mercury), biformis, with parti-coloured black-and- white cap, as guide to Hades. Libra belongs to the autumn; but it symbolises the scales of the dead, not the autumn equinox, otherwise it would appear in the spring quarter as well. “Sol exaltatur in ariete, in libra dejicitur” (Firmicus). Next to Libra comes the Serpent, because the equinoxes begin with the rise of the star Serpentarius. Hence, in Roman mythology, /Equitas holds the scales in her right hand, and serpents lie at her feet, and Proserpina Libera (Venus in Hades) has a girdle of snakes.
2   Comp, most recently Winckler, F. iii., 27S ff., contrary to H. Zimmern’s remarks, K.A.T., iii, 400; A. Jeremias, A.B.A., p. 78. Certainly Zimmern is right in observing that the connection between Nabu and Capricorn (Goat-fish),
V.   R. 46. 3S, argues a connection between this divinity and the winter season (autumn equinox) ; but there are no grounds for the assertion that this connection existed in the earliest times.
SO   
106) when he says of Tammuz-Adonis, the ancient Eastern divinity with characteristics of the year, or half-year (Marduk + Nebo):1 “ He completes his ascent and descent in twelve months, and the Horse” (this also explains what is meant by “ daughters of the House of Day” and “daughters of the House of Night”) “accompany him from the realm of Proserpine (Ishtar of the winter half) into the dwelling of Venus (Ishtar of the summer half) ” ; these “ dwellings ’’ signifying the “Houses” possessed (fig. 2) by stars and constellations in the zodiac, which is divided into two halves by the equator and equinoctial points. Compare further the passage in the liturgy of Mithra (Dieterich, p. 7): “Thou shalt behold the divine order (!); the gods who rule the day ascend into heaven, and the others descend” (i.e. the zodiacal figures descend) ; “and the path of the visible gods will appear by means of the sun.”
3.   Nergal at the Winter or South Point
Nergal has characteristics of the Underworld, which is also named after his place of worship, Kutha. Therefore only the unseen—that is, the “ under’’-lying—south point belongs to him ; Nergal-Saturn is explicitly made synonymous with the sun by the Babylonians (comp. Thompson’s Reports, No. 176, Rev. 1 : Lubat Lagush, Saturn = Star of the Sun). An astronomical text2 says : “On the 18th of Tammuz Nergal descends into the Underworld, and on the 28th of Kislev he ascends again. Shamash and Nergal are one." Eratosthenes, “Simplicius,” and Diodorus attest the same. The sun is represented as Underworld divinity because in his light the stars disappear and perish; the moon, on the contrary, as Upperworld divinity because in her ever-recurrent renewal she represents the resurrection from the dead (Inbu ska ina remanishu ibbami, i.e. “ Fruit which reproduces itself from itself”). The Egyptian of the middle kingdom says -to the mummy: “Thou art Osiris!” (moon in the same sense); that is, “ Thou shalt live again !
4.   Ninib at the Summer or North Point
When the sun is at the south point, in the Underworld, the place assigned to him in the universe,3 the moon is diametrically opposite, at the north point, the lunar point in this system, as we have already recognised in the Anu-point (Anu — Sin ; see p. 14, comp. p. 36). That it should also belong to Ninib is to be expected, since the three other corners of the world are disposed
1   See p. 35.
2   Zimmern, K.A.T., 3rd ed., 3S8 ; also Winckler, F., iii. 2S6 ff. The passage in Diodorus so often quoted (ii. 30) makes Kronos and Helios equal.
3   In the Babylonian calendar, this occurs when the solstices are emphasised (the middle of the season, division of the year into quarters). Then Marduk is the sun, and Nebo the moon, as in the text quoted, p. 32.
THE FOUR POINTS OF THE UNIVERSE 3]
of to Marduk, Nebo, and Nergal. But we may prove it another way. This point is called Nibiru, that is, the Pass through which everyone must go, and farther northwards than which he cannot go (see p. 21). The epic Enuma elish describes on the Fifth Tablet (K.T., p. 122 f.) the establishment of the Nibiru point. We will try to analyse the difficult passage (continuation p. 113) :
“ He made the abiding-places of the great gods; constellations in their likeness he placed as Lumashi-stars (houses of the zodiac?). He determined the year, marked the boundaries; twelve months ; he fixed the stars in three divisions (the so-called thirty-six decani, which are in three divisions, four stages to each, and of which again each one belongs specially to Ann, Bel, and Ea?—or is the division of the year into three parts, analogous to the three great gods, meant?). After he had established firm sections for the days of the year, he erected the station at Nibiru to mark their (the stars’) knot. In order that none (of the stars) should go wrong, none go astray, he established besides the stations of Inlil and Ea ” (variation Ann is surely an error; Nibiru marks Anu’s province in the zodiac). “ He opened doors on both sides ” (the equinoctial points in east and west and also the doors of sunrise and sunset),1 “made a firm barrier to left and right” (i.e. north and south), “in the centre (of the gate) he placed the eltau(?).”
Note further, that in the final tablet of the epic Marduk has fifty titles, of which the highest is Nibiru (see p. 22). Fifty corresponds to the number and the ideogram of Ea, and denotes the complete circle of the universe embodied in Marduk.2 Now, since it is distinctly attested that the previously mentioned “ House of the Fifty ” in Lagash (p. 22) (a seven-storied temple) belongs to Ningirsu- Ninib (see Winckler, M.V.A.G., 1901, 356), it is thereby indirectly attested that the north point belongs to Ninib-Mars, with which conclusion also all the phenomena correspond. Since, further, as we have already seen, Nibiru is the lunar point, it follows that Ninib-Mars may be identified with the moon (she is therefore called Nibiru) as Nergal-Satum with the sun.3 The north point is mythologically important as critical point both of sun and of moon.
1   Compare the presentment on the cylindrical seal, fig. u.
2   Accordingly, he is called “he who grasps the head and tail” (lu stsabit rSshu arkai), Winckler, K.T., 2nd ed., 128, “he who makes the forepart the hindpart.” This recalls the symbolic presentment of the universal orbit, showing a serpent biting its own tail, which is found on Egyptian, Hindoo, and Phoenician monuments : e.g. the upper rim of a Phoenician sacred vessel in the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin ; also the representation of Eternity on Roman coins. In the Coptic picture of the universal orbit, p. 64, the figures of cherubim indicate the four corners of the world within the circle of the serpent.
3   On this point see Winckler, F., iii. 193, 20S ; M.V.A.G., 1901, 266; and the proof supplied by the Egyptian list of five intercalary gods bringing the 360 days of the year up to 365. Saturn (sun !), Mars (moon !), Mercury, Venus, Jupiter : see Spiegelberg, O.L.Z., 1902, 6 ff.
32   
In the sun’s cycle it is the summer solstice point, which in the cycle of the year brings destroying heat and in the cycle of the universe brings the conflagration of the worlds. The Fire Realm (cleansing fire and passage into the Anu-heaven) is a substitution for it; from thence fire comes to the earth (meteor showers in midsummer), and there is the point of the "lame smith ” ; comp. p. 2"). In V.R. 46, No. 1, Rev. 41, when a planet which kills the cattle is called (Litbad bulim mushmif), the planet of Nibiru, Mars in particular is meant.
Besides these indirect evidences for Ninib = north point1 already partly shown by us in A/T.A.O., 1st ed., H. Winckler has now added authentic first-hand documentary proof out of the First Tablet of the cuneiform work on evil spirits: C.T., xvi., pi. iv., pp. 143 ff.
To understand the text, one must bear in mind that the point of sight is in the east, according to Babylonian reckoning, and representing the equinox, Marduk = sun and Nebo = moon. The passage runs:
"Shamash before me, Sin behind me,
Nergal to my right,
Ninib to my left.”
In so far as the four planets represent the chief points of the sun’s orbit, each of them bears also in a special sense the solar character: Marduk is spring or morning sun ; Nebo, autumn or evening sun ; Ninib, midday or summer sun ; Nergal, night or winter sun.
In the same way, on the principle that sun, moon (and Venus) show the same corresponding phenomena, the four planets also correspond to the moon’s phases.
V. ORIENTATION OF THE UNIVERSE
From the arrangement of the “Corners of the World” different theories present themselves about the orientation of the world (Mohammedan Kibla).'2
The theory of Creation arising from the primeval ocean
1   Still considered uncertain by Zimmern, K.A.T., 3rd ed., 408 seq. The whole system, and the inferences it entails, stands or falls according to the view taken of this question.
2   To be distinguished from the points of direction established by the gnomon, for example on the compass surrounding the Cyl. of Sargon, 66 {z/iihrit viii share). Upon Kibla, see Winckler, F., iii. 296 ff., and compare alos p. 33. When the south is given as first direction (north second, east third, west fourth) in III. R. 66, Rev. 27c; II. R. 29, 1-4, it is not treating of the Kibla, but of the relation of the points of direction in regard to the wind points.
ORIENTATION OF THE UNIVERSE
33
agrees with the Kibla to the south.1 The correct astronomical “ orientationis that which makes north the chief direction, the celestial north pole; this may be either the north point of the universe, which belongs to Anu, or the north point of the zodiac, which, according to the above deductions, belongs to Ninib or Sin, the moon ; therefore in the Babylonian mythological system Sin = Ninib and = Anu.
This is the true orientation, which the Babylonians used so long as moon-worship lasted, and which also corresponds to the fact that the river Euphrates flows from north to south (hence, above = north, beloxo = south). For this reason the temple belonging to the Tower of Nippur is on the north-east side ; here the north corner is the Kibla. This Kibla is found amongst the Sabaeans (Chwolsohn, ii. 5. 601), and in the direction for prayer of the Mandaeans they turn towards the north point of the heavens.2
There is possibly another orientation, which, however, seems secondary to the north Kibla ; namely, to the zvest, the other night point. It corresponds with the division of the universe into two (summer and winter, day and night)—in it Nebo is equivalent to the moon, Marduk to the sun,—and may be founded upon the following simple astronomical observation : when the spring sun rises at the equinoctial point (therefore 6 a.m.) the full moon sets in opposition in the west. Therefore here also the orientation is drawn from moon-worship. This orientation is shown by the year beginning in autumn (Tishri is called Beginning3), and is
1   See above, p. 6.
2   Upon the north as chief direction, compare the designations above and below = north and south (or north and west, and south and east). Comp., for example, H. C., 24, 30 f. (“I have rooted out the enemy dish and shaplish, above and below As standard direction the north is called direction No. 1, ishtami, iltami. The sacred character of fire may perhaps be explained by the fact that the importance of the north is rather cosmographical than astronomical (north, the region of fire, see p. 31). Thus in the Zoroastrian or ancient Persian religion, probably the reverence paid to fire originated in the worship of Zoroaster’s native place. The opposition here is the kingdom of water, so important to the Babylonians (Ahriman and his Dragons).
3   A similar arrangement will be found in the age of Aries. It is plain that the year also began in autumn in the Mithraic calendar, since the sixteenth day (full moon) and therefore the seventh month, which occupies the same position in the year as the sixteenth day does in the month, are both consecrated to Mithra.
VOL. I,   3
34   
historically supported by the phenomenon that originally Nebo took the place of Marduk, and vice versa.
Both theories agree with moon-worship. This changed when the age of Sin 1 (according to this theory = Nebo) came to an end, and the age of Marduk began, i.e. when the spring sun passed into the sign of Taurus out of the sign of Gemini, and when the city of Babylon (whose tutelary deity, Marduk, was symbolised as a bull) became, under the rulership of the Hammurabi dynasty, metropolis of the world. Then there arose a theory which fitted everything to Marduk, that is, to the east point. From that time the New Year was celebrated in spring.2
The alteration of the Kibla does not absolutely necessitate change of the north and south points. It depends upon the direction of the circuit. The yearly movement of the sun is towards the east; the feon-movement of the precession of the equinoxes (see “Ages of the Universe,” p. 69) is towards the west.
VI. SOLSTICE AND EQUINOX Sun and Moon
It may be concluded from the foregoing deductions that there are two methods of calculation possible in the religious calendar system.
One emphasises the solstices: the other, which lays stress on the phenomena of nature, accentuates the central point of the arc from solstice to solstice—the equinoctial points. That both methods exist is shown by the Babylonian festivals. The New Year festival, which is spoken of in the Arsacid text quoted on p. 29, celebrates the equinoxes. The Tannnuz festival, in the form of worship best known to us, celebrates the solstices (birth
1   Details under the heading “Ages of the World,” p. 69 seq.
2   The autumn celebration of new year corresponds to the Sumerian orientation, which accounts for, e.g., the festival of Ningirsu in Gudea. When Babylon became metropolis, the Babylonian calendar prevailed, and the year began in spring. The preference for the north is Sumerian, in contrast to the Babylonian arrangement of the cardinal points ; thus in the Jewish state calendar under Shesbazar, the year begins in autumn : see p. 46. A mosaic map of Jerusalem (of the sixth century A.D.), found in Medeba, shows that the main gate of the old city faced north, and the street of columns ran north. The orientation of the map is to the east, with the sea at the bottom.
SOLSTICE AND EQUINOX
35
and death of Tammuz), or, accentuating the relations between sun and moon, the wedding and death of Tammuz (see fig. 14). It depends upon this, therefore, whether there is a division of the circle into two or four. In division into two,
(Full moon point)
Solstice
Ninib-Nibiru
 
Winter Solstice
(Dark moon)
FIG. 14.—Sun and mo"ni with their mythological motifs.
either Nergal or Ninib retires into the background (summer and winter, day and night; comp. Gen. viii. 22); then is Marduk:   Day,   summer.
Nebo:   Night,   winter.
When the moon has the Overwork! and the sun the Underworld character,1 Marduk represents the latter and Nebo the former, as we find in the text quoted p. 32 ; or Marduk and Nebo retire, and then Ninib represents the moon and Nergal the sun.2 The
1   Comp. p. 30. In Deut. xxxiii. 13 the sun and the culmination of the moon (tm Septuagint, crwoSos) are mentioned as parallels to Heaven and Tehom ; see Winckler, F., iii. 306.^7.
2   Then not east and west, but north and south are named as dish and shaplish, above and below.
36   
complete circle can also be represented by one divinity. This is shown in the figure of Tammuz, so far as the myth represents the moon. The waning moon is Tammuz sinking into the Underworld ; the growing moon is the triumphant resurrection of Tammuz with the crescent sword after three days (!) of the
 
N.B. On the large circles the dots show the parts lighted by the night sun, but invisible from the earth.
* Death motif; the corresponding sun motif is the veiling.
** The moon triumphs with the sickle sword over the Powers of Darkness, or is represented as spring new moon (after three days dark moon) rescued by the sun, or bears the sun upon his shoulders through the water region (Christopher). In the emphasis of moon motifs the figure bearing the burden or being borne represents the growing or waning moon.
*** Meeting of the spring full moon (after three days dark moon) with the rescue of Tammuz (sun after winter time), celebrated as New Year.
SOLSTICE AND EQUINOX
37
dark moon time.1 Tammuz is then Nergal + Ninib. Nergal and Ninib appear as twins: are also, therefore, according to
V.   R. 46. 4a, b, associated with the zodiacal sign Gemini.
Emphasising the solar cycle, Tammuz is cither = Marduk + Nebo (marking the equinoxes, as in the passage from Theocritus,
 
FIG. 16.—Tablet from Nippur (?) with figure of the heptagram. Comp. Hilprecht, Expl. in Bible Lands, p. 530.
 
Mercury
 
quoted p. 29) or = Ninib + Nergal (marking the solstice, as in the astronomical cuneiform text quoted p. 30). A third point of view presents in Tammuz the relation of sun and moon. The one rescuing the other out of the Underworld, either the spring new moon rescues the sun (bears him on his shoulders: St Christopher) at the equinoctial points, or the
1   After the Hilal (Arabic, first day of new moon) the moon moves away from his twin brother for fourteen days, then “recognises” him, turns towards him, and wastes away till his death fourteen days later.
58   
spring dark moon, sinking into the Underworld, is rescued by the spring sun. We have a classical witness to the lunar combat in the text reproduced in Chap. II., p. 111. Elsewhere Islitar appears as the partner of Tammuz. Ishtar rescues Tam muz out of the Underworld (journey to hell of Ishtar). Here the rescuing and the rescued equally can bear either solar or lunar character, and on the other hand either can represent the masculine or feminine element.1
Emphasising the solstices, the crisis is the meeting of the full moon with the sun at the summer solstice (24th June : wedding of Tammuz, at the same time the death point of Tammuz).2 Emphasising the equinoxes, the crisis is the meeting of the spring new moon with the spring sun at its victorious point.
Another representation of the cycle of the universe places the seven planets as seven points within a circle in the form of a heptagram. We find the picture of this heptagram on an ancient Babylonian tablet (see fig. 16), and it is well known how great a role it still played in medieval astrology. When the circle is divided into two parts the heptagram becomes a pentagram by the elimination of two planets. Both the eliminated planets were then held as planets of misfortune. In the astrology known to us this is particularly the case with Nergal-Satuni and Ninib-Mars. The pentagram is the astrological magic charm. It is identical with the “ Druid’s-foot,”3 pentalpha, the fairy-cross, and the Sains pythagoras, which were put on the threshold of medieval churches as protection against the entrance or exit of evil spirits (comp. Otte, Kirchliche Archdologie, 5th ed., i. 479). On an Etruscan
1   Ishtar and Tammuz; Isis and Osiris; Attar and Shamash ; Baalat of Gebal and Adonis ; Nergal and Erishkigal; Orpheus and Eurydice. We find the same myth in the Japanese Koyiki, the sacred book of the Shinto sect (see Chap. III., under “Japan ” ), also among the South American races (see Ehrenreich, Die Mythen der siid-amerikanischen Urvolker, p. 37). Ehrenreich testifies that Peruvian myths current before the time of the Incas show an Asiatic character; nevertheless he doubts their Asiatic origin, because he does not take into account the possibility of prehistoric transmission.
a This is the meaning of the motif of ‘1 looking back ” (see p. 36), which is found throughout the whole world. Compare, for example, the South American myth of Yurakare (Ehrenreich, ioc. cit., p. 37), where the moon is hewn in pieces and grows again, follows the sun home, but disappears because she looks back in defiance of the command.
3   Pentagram and “Druid’s-foot” are exactly the same. Drttide or Trade meant a witch in medieval German. See first part of Faust: Mephistopheles cannot pass the pentagram on Faust’s doorstep. — Trans, note.
THE CALENDAR
mirror the pentagram is represented on a ball held by the Goddess of Fate, therefore certainly represents the cosmos (see Gerhard, Ges. Abaci. Ahhandiungen, pictorial atlas, table iv. No. 6).
The myths of the conjUct icith the Poicer of Darkness (Dragon-combat) in the revolution of the day,1 year, and universe vear are based upon the teaching outlined here. In the combat either the moon or sun, or both, are always in antagonism,2 and the Deliverer is he who brings the time of new light. In the Babylonian epoch this is Marduk (Merodach), but that this is artificial and secondary is evident. How can Jupiter be the Deliverer ? The fact is, Marduk-Jupiter has taken the place of Nebo-Mercury (see p. 27). Mercury is the morning star; his name signifies ‘'foreteller": here we see also the astral meaning of the word Nabi, “ prophet11; he is the foreteller or bringer of the new epoch.3 A curious part is played in the combat by the third of the three great stars, Ishtar (Venus). During the combat “ Ishtar strives to become Queen of Heaven” (see p. 112; comp. 119).4 She is counted as the equal inner part of the great triad (with sun and moon), and therefore, when the culminating point is not possessed by either of the other two, she becomes the superior and obtains it—the point of the universe belonging to Ann.5
VII. THE CALENDAR
Since the whole edifice of civilised life was represented as reflecting celestial phenomena, the calendar, which regulates the arrangements of life according to the revolution of the stars,
1   “Wobistdu Sonne blieben? die Nacht hat dich vertrieben, die Nacht des Tages Feind” (Hymn No. 43S in the German Evangelical Hymn-Book, by Paul Gerhardt, 1606-76).
2   Our calendar celebrates the 24th of June instead of the 21st (e.g. in Leipzig), St John’s Day, as the Festival of the Dead, and places the 24th of December (birthday of the Deliverer) instead of the 21st; this is probably because the three- day lunar reckoning is added to the half-year solar reckoning.
3   See Winckler, F., 290 ; comp. 280, 299, 412.
4   Ishtar as Virgo in the zodiac and Ishtar as the planet Venus are identical in the cosmic myth ; see A.B.A., 2nd ed., iii. 56-
5   Compare the motifs in the Book of Esther. Mordecai (Marduk) and Hainan are enemies; Esther (Ishtar) ascends the throne (comp. Winckler, F iii. 1 ft'.). For details upon the Triad, seepp. S6 ff. In the poetic language of the Old Testament (the fight between Yahveh and the dragon) we may recognise the battle according to both lunar and solar motifs.
40   
is the most important political act, a matter of legislation ;1 and every possible event could be based upon solar and lunar
calculations. For the fundamental law of Oriental chronology is: the small and the large cycle correspond to each other, each forming a universe: day— month — year; lustrum — cycle—aeon, etc.
In the cycle of the year observation of the equinoctial points was in the historic age of Babylonia (spring sun in Taurus) of special importance; as they are noted, for example, in the astronomical texts III. R. 51. In these the observation of the heavens emphasised the heliacal rising of the star Aldebaran,2 whose rising coincides with the setting of Antares in Scorpio. That gives almost exactly half the sun’s orbit, and divides the whole of the moon stations, which otherwise lie at FIG. 19.— Ancient-Babylonian various distances from each other, into
calendar nail. Original in ^wo halves. Counting twenty-eight author s possession.   0   .0
moon stations, this gives therefore fourteen Overworld and fourteen Underworld.3 In the division into
 
1   In Memphis the young king vowed in the temple, on his accession, to change neither the order of the festivals nor the calendar. He then carried the yoke of Apis for a certain distance, to indicate his desire to be “defender of the faith.” ('AvaKX-nr-fipia, see Pauly-Wissowa, s.v.). It is noteworthy, further, what importance calendar reform has in the foundation of the supremacy of Mohammed (Winckler, Ex oriente lux, i. 1, 7 : “The oldest traditions of Islam also refer to the regulation of the year ”). The legendary history of Rome records the calendar legislation of Numa Pompilius. The dictator clavis Jigendi causa is the ancient Roman calendar-maker. Clay cones in the shape of nails have come down to us from the earliest age of Babylonia ; these cones were thrust into the inner walls of their temples to mark divisions of time (see fig. 19). In China the calendar- makers are called the “College or Board of Celestial Affairs”; comp. Ideler, Chronologic der Chinesen, 1839.
2   The largest star of the Hyades (see p. 25).
3   Note that amongst the Chinese, Hindus, and Arabs the Pleiades form the first station of the moon and Scorpio the fourteenth. Comp. Foachan, Astral- my then, 430, and von Bunsen’s work, Die Plcjaden u. dcr Ticrkreis, based on

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Re: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST (sumer) I
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THE CALENDAR
41
four (corresponding to the quadruple division of space, the four “ cornersof the universe) the solstices are added to the equinoctial points, which correspond to Regulus in Leo in the Taurus calendar.1 This quadruple division corresponds to the division of the year into four seasons.
The passage of the moon twelve times through the lunar “ houses,11 compared with the sun’s revolution through the houses of the zodiac, gives sections of time of 12 x 30 days, roughly speaking, and according to that a legal year of 360 days. This legal year is attested in Babylonia, amongst others, by II. R. 52. 3, Rev. 38, where the year is reckoned as 12 months and vi. shushshu (1 shushshu = 60) = 360 days. This legal year is only conceivable as a conscious deviation from the true lunisolar year amounting to 365J days, and even as a deviation in the sense of the mathematical system which divides the solar course into 360 degrees and in subdivisions of 30 degrees (12 signs of the zodiac) and 10 degrees (36 decani)? The round year requires intercalation. On Egyptian ground the intercalation of five days is attested in the Pyramid texts of Pepi II.3 Up to the present we have direct evidence only of the unsystematically inserted intercalary months in Babylonia.
The Assyrian names of the months are in the order of the age of Aries,4 therefore of the late Assyrian period:—
Haliburton’s investigations on the Pleiades and the works of Dupuis. Von Bunsen must, of course, be used with care. This explains the fourteen pieces in the ‘'mutilation” motif in the myth of Osiris and Typhon. In the first book of the Shu-King likewise the four Determinists are named (in respect to the time of the mythical Emperor Jao, in the third millennium), and the commentators upon the Han dynasty (third century B.c.) say that the spring point lies in Mao (r/ in the Pleiades of our star chart, therefore in Taurus !) in the moon station of the same name. The same star is called Krittika in Brahman astronomy, and is there also the first moon station in the spring point. Comp. p. 12, and the works there quoted.
1   See Gen. xlix. io. Regulus, the royal star, attested in Babylonia as such under the name Sharru, lies between the feel of the Lion. The north point, or dominant point in the cycle of twelve, belongs to Judah, the Lion. The zodiacal molifs in the blessing of Jacob agree therefore with the age of Taurus.
2   For further detail, see A.B.A., 2nd ed., pp. 58 ff.
3   “ When the gods were born on the five additional days” ; the further intercalation of the quarter-day was postponed into the Sothis cycle.
4   IV. R. 33. The Assyrian order uses Veadar as intercalary month (dedicated to Assur, “ the father of the mighty gods ”). For the list of gods in the context,
42   
Nisan : Jiru (Ijjar) Si van :
Tam muz :
Ab:
Elul:
Tishri:
Marheshvan: Kislev:
Tebet :
Shebat:
Adar:
Ann and Bel.
Ea, Lord of Mankind.
Sin-moon, First-born of Bel.
Ninib, the Warrior, exchangeable with the sun (see Tishri).
Nebo-Mercury.
Ishtar-Venus.
Shamash, the “Hero,” exchangeable with Ninib- Mars (see Tam muz).
Marduk-Jupiter deputy (Abkallu) of the gods. Nergal-Saturn, the Great Warrior (?).
Papsukal, Messenger of Anu and Ishtar. Rannnan, the “ Gugal ” of heaven and earth, the great “ Seven ’’-divinity.
Winckler, in the essay, “Himmel, Kalender, Myth us,” I1., ii. p. S54, which is a complete interpretation of the foundations of the Ancient-Oriental system, has shown that the list clearly indicates an earlier method of reckoning, with six (double) months, which are divided between Sin, Shamash (Twins, divided in the Assyrian calendar between the third and fourth months), and the five planets, thus agreeing with the planet list, III. R. 57. 65.
Whilst in the reckoning of twelve months each one corresponds to a sign of the zodiac, the zodiacal signs correspond to the double months in the following way :— 1
Gemini j g- j'anc[ Shamash] Twins j L   J
Cancel j gjian:ias}1 ( _ Nergal) Crab )
Leo:   Ninib-Mars
(Virgin)
[January: Janus with the double face ; see p. 72] [February: Nergal as the Bringer of Fever, Jebris\2 [Marcli-Mars]
comp. Winckler, F., ii. 367 seq. ; Hommel, Aufsdtze itnd Abhaudlitngen, 447 ff. For the corresponding months among the Jews and Phoenicians, see Neh. i. t.
1   See Winckler, loc. cit., and Geschichte Israels, ii. 283.
2   Dedicated to the god of the Underworld among the Etruscans (Schobat), see Movers in Chwolsohn, Ssabier, ii. 782 ; it is the defective month (motif of the Rape of the Maiden and Childlessness), see ibid., 607, 7S2.
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43
Scales | Nebo-Mercury   [April-Hermes]1
Libra )
Scorpio : Marduk-Jupiter   [May - Jupiter as optimum
vuLvhnus]
Virgo :   Islitar-Venus   [June-Juno].
The brackets show the iC Babylonian origin” of the Roman double months (comp. p. 7;) and Movers in Chwolsohn, S.? airier,
ii.   7S2).
The number six is arrived at by eliminating one of the Planets of Misfortune (Nergal = Sun, or later, following the law of rotation, Ninib), as the pentagram is obtained bv the elimination of both (see p. 37). The full number of seven appears in the calculation of the week, the relation of which to the planets, as already remarked, we hold to be primeval.2 Finally, that complete months, which represent day* of the year, are dedicated to astral gods, is shown by the ancient Persian calendar.3 In the Christian era the calendar saints have replaced astral gods; but the astral references are still traceable at many points.4
The order of our planet-named weekdays (see Winckler, F., iii. 192) is obtained from the heptagram (see p. 37), if the points are
1 See Winckler, F, ii. 360. The fact that the fourth instead of the sixth month belongs to Libra (Nebo-Mercury), the sign of the autumn equinox, clearly proves the backward movement of the equinox through two ages (the list dates from the age of Gemini, not Aries) ; comp. p. 73.
2   The Jewish writers of the Kabbala, who got their wisdom from Babylonian sources, set an archangel over each of the seven planets, who governs the world on specific days of the week : Raphael, the sun ; Gabriel, the moon ; Chamael, Mars ; Michael, Mercury ; Zadkiel, Jupiter ; Annael, Venus ; Sabathiel or Kephziel, Saturn (see Kohut, Angelologie im Talmud). According to Clemens Alex- andrinus, Stromata 6, the seven spirits before the throne of God (Rev. i. 4) correspond to this view, and must be regarded as the planets (see B.N. 77, 24 seq.). The Nabatrean book of El Maqrisi (Chwolsohn, ii. 611) proves the connection between days of the week and planets among the Sabaeans.
3   One month (double month?) belongs to each of the six Amshaspands, also one day apiece in the divisions of the months reckoned by fourteen days plus sixteen. Ormuzd makes a seventh : the 1st, 8th, 15th, and 23rd are sacred to him. Plutarch says that the six (each of whom, moreover, is accompanied by the triad, sun, moon, and Tishtrya-Sirius), are increased to thirty by the addition of twenty- four spirits.
4   For example. St John’s day (“ He must increase but I must decrease”) falls on the summer solstice ; St Thomas’s day (for Thomas, “ the twin,” see B.N.T., 92) on the winter solstice, 21st December.
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designated in the following order:1 Moon, Mercury, Venus, sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and then connected across each two points, beginning with the sun (see fig. 20).2
There is no specific “Hebrew” calendar. We can only speak of one which the Israelites adopted, that is, took into practical use,3 out of the many existing calendars; we therefore call this calendar Hebrew ” as we might call the calendar of Julian “ Russian.”
(Monday; Moon 3
Saturn I (Saturday)
Jupiter 6 (Thursday, feudi)
Mars 4 (Tuesday, Mardi)
 
Mercury 5
(Wednesday, Mercredi)
Venus 7
(Friday, Vendredf)
Sun 2 (Sunday)
FIG. 20.
From the material up to the present time available, the continuous week of seven days seems to be an Israelite peculiarity. In the
1   The moon, as nearest the earth ; then Mercury and Venus, as satellites of the sun, both being morning and evening stars ; then the sun ; then Mars, Jupiter, Saturn (the sequence is arranged according to the length of time required by their orbit round the ecliptic, see p. 20). This is the usual Babylonian order, arranging the planets according to their apparent distance from the earth (see II. R. 48. 4S seq. a, b ; III. 1\. 57. 65 seq. a), except that the moon and sun come first.
2   Moreover, not only the days but the hours are linked in mystic relation with the planets, as we may see from horoscopes cast according to the hour of birth. (Books for ascertaining the horoscope, calculated up to date, are still sold at German fairs, and “superstitious” farmers use them for deciding at what age young stock should be slaughtered.) For example, if the first hour of the first weekday belongs to Saturn (and the first hour is most important in astrology), the second to Jupiter, the third to Mars, the fourth to the sun, the fifth to Venus, the sixth to Mercury, the seventh to the moon, and so on through the twenty- four, then the first hour of the second day belongs to the sun, the first hour of the third day to the moon, the first of the fourth day to Mars, the first of the fifth to Mercury, the first of the sixth to Jupiter, the first of the seventh to Venus ; and according to the planet governing the first hour, the day was called Saturnsday (Saturday), Sunday, Moonday, Tuesday {Mardi), Wednesday {Mercredi), Thursday, (Jeiuii, Jovis dies), Friday ( Vendredi, Veneris dies).
3   The festivals were derived from the calendar, which depends on the movements of the planets, not the calendar from the festivals. See Winckler {Kritische Schriften, iv. 62 seq.) in support of this view and in opposition to the theories of Wellhausen and his followers, who consider the festivals to have been primitive celebrations of harvest-time by an agricultural people devoid of calendar science. The following explanations differ from Schiaparelli’s views in his Astronomic im Altai Testament, Giessen, Ricker, 1904.
THE CALENDAR
45
sphere of Ancient-Oriental civilisation outside the Israelite dominion there is only a continuous week of live days attested (hamushtu, by the small Cappadocian tablet published by Golenischeff, written in Babylonian cuneiform letters). These weeks of seven days seem to be very slightly connected with the lunar course.
Further, they cannot have reference to the moon, because "28 is in no case a lunar number. (27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes is the duration of the sidereal revolution; 29 days, 12 hours, 44* minutes of the synodic revolution : the equalisation would be 28L) The seven-day week represents simply a number, and there is no era of Ancient-Oriental civilisation in which it is conceivable that it would not have been connected with the seven planets.
In regard to calculation of the year, it is certain that the Israelites knew the equalised solar and lunar year, for the number of years of the life of Enoch (365) is undoubtedly solar reckoning (see Chap. cc Ancestors ”). Had they at any given time reckoned officially by the solar year it would have become a matter of legislation, but it can only be shown by certain historical events.
Solomon’s decision, 1 Kings iv. 7, that every month in the year L'Hn one of the twelve districts should pay tribute, points to 12 x 30 days, so does the reckoning of the chronicler of the Deluge story : from 17th of the second month till 17th of the seventh month = 150 days (a half year, corresponding to the universe half year of the Water Region). Does that agree with solar or with lunar reckoning? Possibly with both. For also in lunar reckoning it practically works out at 30 days (alternately 29 and 30 days from new moon to new moon). The names Yerah for month and rosh hodes (beginning of the renewal) for the beginning of the periods of time prove that they started with the moon’s course (Yareah). Later rn' (fiT D'D' = CHn) indicates usually 30 days (comp. Numb. xx. 29, Deut. xxxiv. S, the times of mourning for Aaron and Moses).
That they began with the festival of the new moon is not proved by passages like Am. viii. 5 : 2 Kings iv. 23 ;1 they may refer to the distinguishing of the first day of the thirty-day periods. With the neighbouring Phoenicians there is certainly a witness to the new moon festival in the inscription of Narnaka, where two times for sacrifice in the month are appointed, at new moon and at the full moon.2 The dating by new moon
1   It is doubtful whether i Sam. xx. 5, lS, 24, 27, argues a calculation of the date of the new moon.
2   Text in Landau’s Beitrage, ii. pp. 46 seq. It is certain that the Israelites, like
all the peoples of the near East, based their calculations of time on the moon (Ps. civ. 19; Cant, xliii. 6-S). In Midrash Genesis rabba c. 6 (comp. Pesikta, 41 b), we are told :   Rabbi Jochanan says : The moon was created solely for the
calculation of times and seasons ” (not to gi%-e light like the sun). Among the orthodox Jews, mothers still teach their sons to take off their caps to the new moon.
46   
and foil moon on the journey to Sinai corresponds very well with old methods.
When did the Israelite year begin ? In 1 Kings xx. 22 and 26 the time when the King of Damascus customarily began his campaigns is named as the new year. The same holds good of David’s warlike expeditions (2 Sam. xi. 1). Here, therefore, the beginning of the year is in spring. Would this be only a borrowed version of the story, and not much more likely an agreement with a current calendar? Jer. xxxvi. 22, where the King sits by the warming fire in the winter month, is evidence to which no objections can be raised. We are inclined also to think that Exod. xii. 2 (Nisan as the first month) agrees with old methods = the Babylonian calendar (age of Taurus), perhaps in definite opposition to the current Egyptian calendar.
When the Jews had their own government after the Exile, they fixed (under Sheshbazzar) in their own calendar legislation autumn (Tishri, that is, beginning) as the beginning of the year, in opposition to Babylon (but still preserving the old Euphratesian reckoning in the name Tishri).1 But in practice the festival of the autumn harvest was looked upon as the end of the year even before the Exile. The Jews have still two beginnings of the year, one in spring and one in autumn. Exod. xxiii. 16, in connection with Exod. xii. 2, may be in keeping with original methods, but it hardly answers to an official calendar regulation. If one regards it so, it would have to be taken as evidence of an earlier attempt of the Jews to form an independent political state in opposition to Babylon, and it would therefore show a retrogression in the growth of Jewish nationality.
If the creation of the world is held to be in the spring, this proves nothing in regard to the calendar, but it is evidence of a dependence upon the Babylonian teaching.
That the complete year was in every age founded upon the equalisation of solar and lunar cycle goes without saying, otherwise the appointed astronomical festivals could not be at the same time the harvest festivals. The vintage and the corn festival could not then be celebrated in the proper months, for in the true lunar year they would move backwards through the months.
Upon the Sabbath comp. Chap. IV. (pp. 174 ff. ; on the Israelite’s day and hour comp. p. 67). The agreement of the post-Exile months with the Phoenician and Babylonian names is discussed in passage upon Neh. i. 1.
VIII. REVELATION OF THE DIVINE WISDOM AND WILL
The Ancient-Oriental teaching was identical with religion. According to it all knowledge was of divine origin, and was
1   Comp. p. 33, n. 3.
REVELATION OF DIVINE WISDOM AND WILL 47
revealed to men by the gods, even purely intellectual knowledge as well as the arts, in particular the art of writing, and handi- . crafts, and all skilled work. Religion was a part of knowledge, and the fostering of knowledge was the duty of the priests, who established a doctrine according to which all earthly phenomena, the regulation of daily life, the whole civil and social order as well as the destiny of each individual, was conceived as an emanation from the power and the will of the Deity. The myth is the materialisation and popular form of this teaching.1 It represents knowledge as a revelation written down in a book or drawn on tables of fate by the divinity, and with theories of the cosmogony such as described above, and of the nature of the places of divine manifestation a twofold mythical representation is possible: divine wisdom emerges from ocean,2 or the will of God is revealed by the course of the stars. The first theory corresponds to space, the other to time ; the myths bear a corresponding cosmic or calendar character.3
(a)   Wisdom rising from the Waters4
When Ea created the first man (Adapa, called Atrahasis, “Earth Intelligence,” and Zer Ameluti,“ Seed of Mankind”), he gave him “divine power, a broad mind, to reveal the formation of the land, and lent him wisdom.”5 A Babylonian text0
1   Dramatisation iri the festival plays was the other method of popularising the teaching (see upon this pp. 93 ff.).
2   Comp. Trov. viii. 24, 29, 30.
3   Fundamentally they are of course identical. Note that “figures” were taught to mankind by Oannes-Ea. Mathematics is the foundation of astral theosophy (see p. 62 et set/.).
4   Also attested in Chinese mythology. In the time of the mythical Emperor Fuk-Hi (beginning of third millennium B.c.) there arose from the waters of the river Meng-ho or Hoang-ho a monster with the body of a horse and the head of a dragon, and upon his back he bore a tablet inscribed with written characters and the eight mystic diagrams, and by this means the art of writing became known. In India also we find the Oannes figure : warning of the Flood is given by a god in the form of a fish.
5   This Adapa, as th & first man of the present ceon, corresponds to Mummu, to the vo-grbs icoa^os in the prehistoricceon (see pp. 7 f.), and to the “archintelligence” Atarljasis as first man of the reon which arose out of the chaos of the Deluge.
a IV. R. 48 ( = C.T., xv. 50); comp. V. R. 51. 30A Comp, article on Oannes in Roscher’s Lexihon der PPythologie, iii. 590.
48   
speaks of the shipru book ! TDD of the god Ea, the observance of which was incumbent, above all, upon kings. Ea is, according to II. R. 58, “ God of Wisdom, the Potter, the Smith, the Singer, the Kalu-Priest, the Navigator, the Jeweller .... the Stonemason, the Metalworker.11
The tables of Oannes1 are of most value in this connection. Note, for example, that after the close of the Epic of Creation the primeval wisdom belonging to Ea is transferred to Marduk ; further, that the priestly wisdom which, in the tradition of the heroes the gods give to Ennieduranki, originally belonged to Ea, and in the ritual tablets “the Secret of Ea,” also occasionally the “Word from out the Waters,” the dwelling-place of Ea, are important.2 3
Eusebius (Citron., i., ed. Schoene, p. 134) records in his “Chaldean Archeology”: “A great crowd of people of different races who inhabited Chaldea came together in Babylon, living lawlessly, like wild beasts. In the first year (after the Creation) there appeared from the ‘Erythraean’ Sea, where it borders on Babylonia, a being gifted with reason, whose name was Oannes; he had the body of a fish, but under the fish-head was another, like that of a man ; also the feet of a man grew from beneath the tail, and he had a human voice. His picture is still preserved. This being abode through the day with mankind, eating nothing, and communicated to them the knowledge of writing and of the sciences (paOrj/xarow [mathematon]) and of many arts, and taught them how cities should be inhabited and temples built, how laws should be made and the land cultivated, the sowing and reaping of fruits, and above all the amenities necessary to the comfort of daily life (^epwo-t? [Hemerosis]). Since that time nothing has been found to surpass this instruction. At sunset this being Oannes sank again into the sea and passed the nights in the water, for he was amphibious. Later, more of these beings appeared [in the same way out of the sea, Syncellus adds in another account], of which an account is given in the history of the kings. Oannes wrote a book (A.oyos [Logos]) which he gave to man about the origin and growth of civilisation.”
Helladius (in Photius, see Migne, Patrologia grara, Bd. 103) recounts : “ A man named ’fby? [oTs], who had the body of a fish, with the head and feet and arms of a man, rose out of the Erythraean Sea and taught astronomy and learning.” Hyginus (Fabnice, ed. Schmidt, Jena, 1872, fab. 274) says: “Euadnes, who
1 Discussed in connection with Ea in Roscher’s Lexikon dcr Mythologie, iii, (art. “Oannes”); by Zimmern, K.A.T., 3rd ed., p. 535 ; and lastly by Hrozny,
Jf. V.A.G., 1903, p. 94 el set/.
3   IV. R. 21, 1 A, 41a ; also K.A.T., 3rd ed., 62S, n. 2 (in IV. R. 23, No. 1, with r, 6) and IV. R. 29, 40.
REVELATION OF DIVINE WISDOM AND WILL 49
rose out of the sea in Chaldea, taught man astrology.” (Upon Ea- Oannes see pp. 52, n. 1, 104- ff., and fig. 32.)
(b)   The Celestial Scriptures and the Tables of Destiny
In the present universe divine wisdom is, as it were, codified in the constellations. The stars are called in Babvlonian shitir shame, shitirtu shame, u writing of the heavens.’'1 The moving stars of the zodiac in their constellations are especiallv interpreters of the divine will.'2
The Babylonian religion appears to us therefore to be essentially an astral religion. The multiplication of the ideogram for “God” (#) gives that for “ star,” and the symbols of the gods are the same as those of the constellations. The people prayed to the stars, their reason being that the one divine power manifested itself in the various stars. Local worship of an astral god took its rise from the places of worship being held to correspond to the cosmic places where the respective stars revealed the divine power, and we may take it that each separate place of worship knew the whole teaching but emphasised one special part. The local deity was repre-
1   The same presentment is found in Job xxxviii. 33 : “ Knowest thou the mishtar of heaven?” ; and, following the principle that the earthly is the picture of the heavenly, the parallel passage says : “Or canst thou paint it upon the earth ? ” Celestial and terrestrial writing therefore correspond, and hieroglyph and alphabet are obtained from the starry heavens (see Homrnel, G.G.A., pp. 96 ff. ; and Winckler, F., iii. 195 ff.). The Koran, Sura 45. 1-4, attests the same fundamental law in Arabia: “The revelation of the Book is from God, for the faithful may read in the heavens and the earth, also in your own nature and in that of all animals. And in the alternations of day and night, and in the heaven-sent nourishment reawakening the earth to life, and also in the changes of the wind.” Comp, with this Sura 16. 16: “. . . . for they are accompanied by the stars ” (Winckler, M. V.A.G. 1901, 360). Upon the teaching of Zarathustra, see p. 161, n. 4. From the Jewish writings Moed Katon 28a may be quoted: “Long life, children, and nourishment do not depend upon merit, but upon the stars.”
2   The fixed stars and the constellations are the commentary on the myths corresponding to the planets in the zodiac, like a commentary written along the border. Castor and Pollux, as well as Spear and Bow stars (Great and Little Dog star), correspond to Gemini (Spear, motif of the moon ; Bow, of the sun ; for example, in the manner of the stories of Saul and Jonathan, Cyrus and Cambyses, Ajax and Teucer); the rising and setting of Orion corresponds to the myth of Tam muz, and the Orion motifs correspond specially to the motifs of the myth of springtime : the seven Pleiades rising with Taurus after forty days’ disappearance illustrate the myth of vanquished winter in the solar reckoning, as the five Hyades do in lunar reckoning. These things can only be hinted at here. Ed. Stricken has emphasised the relation of the fixed star Heaven, but on the other hand it is a fault in Stucken’s work that the relation of the fixed stars is looked upon with a one-sided view, without reference to the planets.
VOL. 1.
4
50   
sented in his own district as summits ileus, as representative of the complete divine power revealed in the starry world.1
Documentary Evidence of the Doctrine of Revelation
1.   The Omina,2 in particular the astrological work “When the God Bel,11 which dates back to the oldest time known to us of Babylonian history deals with soothsaying by means of a sheep’s liver. But this soothsaying bears a cosmic character. The liver represents the microcosmos. The observation of the heavens is connected with the slaughter-house of sacrificial beasts in the form of divination by means of the liver.
2.   The annals of the most ancient of the north Babylonian kings known to us, Sargon and Naramsin, are communicated to us in the form of Omina from prophecies by liver. A celestial phenomenon accompanies every event, in accordance with which the action is carried out.
3.   The designation of the planets as “Transmitters of the Laws of Heaven and Earth,11 as “ Interpreter11 and “ Counsellor11; see pp. 10, 12, n. 2, 18, 49.
4.   Berossus (Priest of Marduk about 275 B.C.), “ who interpreted Bel,11 says that everything that happens is ruled by the course of the stars (Seneca).
5.   The tapshhnate, “Tables of Fate,113 which regulate the “Vaults (pulukhu)4 of Heaven and Earth,11 and upon which the “ Commandments of the Gods11 and “ the Life of Man11
1   The ideogram # (eight-rayed, with variant of sixteen rays), which designates Anu as sitmtnus dens, is perhaps a representation of the celestial pole, which, as throne of the summits dens enjoyed divine honours, and of the points of direction proceeding from him ; upon this conjecture, which originated with Oppert, and was accepted by Jensen and Zimmern, compare A.B.A., 2nd ed., p. 15.
2   Text published by Craig, Astrological Texts, xiii. Upon these Omina see the important fundamental investigations by Jastrow, in Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens.
3   To be read in the singular? By analogy with the Biblical tables of the law, one might be inclined to think of two tables. But also seven tables are conceivable. The destinies of Jacob’s family are written upon seven celestial tablets (Jubil. xxxii. 21 set/.). Compare the book with the seven seals, Rev. v. (see B.N. 71, p. 17), and the seven tables in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus, each one of which bore the name of one of the seven planets.
4   I. R. 51, No. 1, 24b, and V. R. 66, 14 et set/, b (Antiochus Soter). Jensen, Kosm., 162 (but comp. 505 et set/.), “circle’’; Zimmern “boundary circle”—? The word in Arabic is the astronomical term for “globe.”
REVELATION OF DIVINE WISDOM AND WILL 51
are written. Nebo carries them, “the Scribe of the Universe.’” Also Bel, “ the Father of the Gods,’” as Lord of the Zodiac. In the myths of the combat with the dragon and of the renewal
"   O
of the world they are hung round the neck of the conqueror and demiurgos as reward. In the epic of the combat of Marduk they were in the possession of Kingu, partner of Tiamat after the chaining of Mummu. Tiamat delivers them to him (Marduk) with the words: “Thy commands shall not be changed, the words of thy mouth shall be established.'1 Possession of the tablets carries with it the right to rule over destinies (.sh/mdta slid mu). The Tablets of Fate are a concrete representation of the idea of revelation, proceeding from out the primeval waters, the seat of wisdom, or from the celestial world. The tablets are the divisions of the world, the stars and constellations form the writing; their relation in religious history to the Urim and Thummim is discussed in an article on Urim and Thummim in the Anniversary Volume by Hilprecht.
6.   The legends of Enmeduranki1 seventh mythical king, to whom, as in the case of other mythical kings of the heroic age, is attributed the same inspired knowledge which originally belonged only to the gods.'2 “ Into the hand of Enmeduranki, King of Sippar, beloved of Anu, Bel and Ea, Shamash and Adad have given the Secret of Ann, Bel and Ea, the Tablets of the Gods, the takaltu (? written table ’ ?) of the Secret of Heaven [and Earth], the Cedar Staff, beloved of the High Gods. He himself, however, when he had rec[eived (?) this, taught (?) it to his] son.” The correctness of the restoration is proved by the close of the Creation epic: “The fifty names (of honour) (of Marduk who has received the Tables of Destiny) shall be preserved, and the “ first ” shall teach them, the wise and the learned shall ponder them together, the father shall teach them to his son, and instruct the herdsman and the guardian.”
7.   Berossus, who knows of a multiple revelation of the Divine
] Text and translation in H. Zimmern’s Beitriige ztir Kenninis der babyl. Religion, pp. 116 ff. Comp. li'.A. T., 3rd ed., 537 f.
2   The same fundamental idea occurs in the Avesta. According to Vendidad vi. Yirna was appointed to guard divine truth upon earth. The true teaching was then communicated to Zoroaster (note that in the Avesta Yirna is also King of the Dead, like Nebo, Hermes, etc. ; see following note). The religion of Zoroaster developed out of star-worship (Magi !), as the first hymn in the sacrificial book Yasna betrays : “ I sacrifice to the stars, to the star of the Holy Spirit, to Tishtrya (Sirius), to the moon who possesses the seed of the bull, to the gleaming sun with hurrying horses, to the eyes of Ormuzd,” etc.
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Wisdom in different ages of the universe, relates in his Babylonian history of the Deluge that Kronos commanded Xisuthros to inscribe everything, the beginning, middle, and end, in written signs and to deposit it in Sippar. (The Babylonian priest Berossus could only mean cuneiform tables, perhaps the book of the legends of Oannes is meant.) After the Deluge his children and relations went to Babylon, took the writings from Sippar, and, following the command of Xisuthros, taught them to all mankind.
It can scarcely seem doubtful that the tradition includes the tables of both the mythical kings, Xisuthros and Enmeduranki, in these archives.1
8.   Indirectly we may adduce the tables upon which the laws regarding sacrifice, prayer, and friendship are written, the “ Table of Good Works” in which, according to IV. R.2 11, there are eighteen entries made : the “ Table of Sins,” which, represented by the ritual tables, are broken and thrown into the water; see B.N.T., chap, v., Book of Life.
All these tablets and books, the idea of which we meet with again in the Sibylline books, are the earthly analogies to the astral Book of Fate.
IX. THE EARTHLY IMAGE OF THE CELESTIAL WORLD
The Babylonian teaching is based, as may be seen from the former deductions, upon the idea of a pre-established harmony between a celestial und a terrestrial image. In it the part always corresponds to the whole. In each phenomenon of the cosmos and of the cycle the whole is reflected.
Naturally in practice it is things terrestrial which are imaged in the heavens, but in theory it is the other way: the type is in the heavens; comp. Isa. vii. 11 (Hennecke, Neuf. Apokr., 298): “ As it is above, so is it upon the Earth, for the image of all that is in the Firmament, is here, upon Earth.” Therefore also the Babylonian records describe first the creation of the cosmic divinities and then those of the earth. The Chinese cosmogony has the same foundation. The earth is a counterpart of the heavens. This is particularly clearly shown in the science of geomanev, which was revived by the teaching of Shu-fu-tse (twelfth century A.D.) and which is in use to the present day, the
1   Enmeduranki corresponds to Ea of the Underworld, that is, to Nebo, teacher of the divine will in the astral doctrine (in Egypt to Thaut, teacher, prophet, and sacred scribe, interpreter of the gods, founder of the religion ; in Phoenicia, according to Sanchuniathon, to Thaut as interpreter of the heavens ; in Greece, to Hermes as discoverer of astronomy and of the art of writing, etc.).
2   K 3364= C. T., xiii. 29 seq.
EARTHLY IMAGE OF THE CELESTIAL WORLD 53
chief principle being: All that is upon earth has its type in heaven.1 Comp. Orelli, Rel. Gesch., S5.
The Egyptian idea also apparently develops from the earth outwards and the celestial world is a mirror of Egypt; but here also the theory is the reverse. The contrast between the Platonic and the Aristotelian views vests finally upon the same difference : nomina ante rem, or nominu in re r The Aristotelian view is the truer, the Platonic the more idealistic.
1.   The Countries
The terrestrial universe corresponds to the celestial universe in its entirety and in its parts. Thus one of the Omina texts says:
The right side of the moon is Akkad,
The left side of the moon is Elam,
The upper part of the moon is Amurru,
The under part of the moon is Subartu.
In the Adapa myth Ea gives to the first man “a broad mind to understand the formation of the country,” and in the Oannes legend Cannes teaches man how to survey the country and delivers to him a book upon statesmanship.
Geography mirrors the celestial in space, as the calendar does in time. Each country is a microcosmos. The changes of political (historical) geography alter nothing fundamentally, for the natural division always returns in the end. Occasionally also the theory came to the aid of politics, and after conquest of a land proved a divinely ordained union by the help of the celestial image.2
When the Bible represents the country belonging to Israel and Judah (“ from Xahal Misraim even to the Pass of Hamath”) as the Promised Land, it is only a religious adaptation of the Ancient- Oriental principle that every conquest, every political division of a country, and the foundation of every realm is divinely appointed, and happens according to principles prefigured in the celestial
1   The principle begins to appear in the fourth century B.C., when Indian influence made itself felt. In building a house it was most important that the green dragon and the white tiger (autumn and west point, spring and east point; see de Groot, Rel. Syst. in China, 982 seq.) should be rightly placed and the five elements (p. lS, n. 2 ; and p. 64, n. 2) properly divided.
- Winckler, K.A.T., 3rd ed., 15S, 176 et seq. ; F., iii. 360 et seq. ; Geschichte Israels, ii. 2S9 seq.
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world.1 The religious conviction is also founded here upon the unprecedented experience: “who brought us out of the land of Egypt” “ into the land which He promised to our fathers.” A religious personality like Amos can conceive that in other cases of migration and conquests the same Divine hand is in operation : “Art thou not unto me as the Kusliites ? ” saith Jehovah ; “have I not led Israel out of Egypt, as the Philistines out of Kaphtor and the Syrians out of Kir ? ”
As Microcosmos every country has a mountain which is the throne of the Divinity and place of Paradise, a centre of gravity (navel), o/x^aXo?, Babylonian, marl-as shame u irtsitim, similar to the maternal link, binding together the
 
Fio. 21.—Templum (centre of gravity) from Ilios (shaped liver).
Second or third century B.C.2
terrestrial and the celestial universe,a a sacred river, which corresponds to the celestial river (Milky Way ?) ,4 an entrance
1   The Hebrew designations ja/nin, keJcm show traces of a cosmical division of
the country, 'v'ccc, i.e. the left {Sam'al is the territory of Zenjirli in ‘Aral.<, therefore the northern part of the western country of the Amurru) ; south is right, north left, by the Babylonian Kibla. Names like Kiriath Arba, Kiriath Sepher, Beer- sheba, and Gilgal have cosmic meaning (see   631) ; and to understand the
stories of the Patriarchs (and the deeper meaning in localities given by the Yahvist and Elohist in North and South Canaan) the knowledge is of the utmost importance (see Winckler, F.t iii. 264).
2   Recognised by Jastrow as such.
3   One of the mythical variants is the “ Gordian knot.” The cutting of the knot, which represents the culminating point, the “ knotting together of the universe,” signifies seizing the dominion (see p. 5S, p. 37S, n. 2).
4   Abana and Pharpar in Damascus (2 Kings v. 12); Choaspes in Persia, “ from
EARTHLY IMAGE OF THE CELESTIAL WORLD 55
to the Underworld, and so on. The Babylonians have a celestial Euphrates and Tigris (again compare Milky Way), a cosmic Babylon,1 Eridu, and Nineveh. And this conception is common to the whole Eastern world.
A surprising proof of the localisation of the parts of the universe in the districts of the city of Sidon has lately been found in an inscription on a building of Bod-Astart, grandson of Eshmunazar. The inscription differentiates Sidon of the Sea, Sidon of the Plain, and Underworld-Sidon. Clerniont-Ganneau conjectured the cosmic- mythological sense of the names, though the Ancient-Oriental theory at the root of the idea was unknown to him. See Landau, M.T.A.G., 1904, 321. The rivers of Phoenicia have also mythologic- cosmic meaning: see Winckler, F., iii. 25 f.
In Lebanon two springs of the Nahr-el-Kelb are named, one, Neba-fel-fAsal, Honey-Spring, the other Neba-Cel-Leben, Milk-Spring ; see Baedeker’s Palestine.
The celestial system is also made the principle of the tribal divisions.'2 This explains the number 12 of the tribes, and 70 (variants 72, 73) as complete number of states and nations.3
It goes without saving that the idea of the parallel between the celestial image and the land rests on the assumption that the whole earth is a counterpart of the heavens. The practical form taken by this doctrine depends naturally upon the greater or less knowledge of the extent of the earth. Arabian geography divides the earth into seven climates, after the seven zones of the celestial “ earththe division of the globe into twelve copow tcXlpLara {horon Idimata) is found in Greece as well as in Mexico
which only kings drink”; the Nile, Euphrates, Ganges, Achelous in Greece. For the throne of God (Sinai-Horeb, Bethel-Gilgal-Mizpah, Sion-Moriah, the ideal mountain, Isaiah ii., Micah iv.), comp. Chap. V., “ Paradise,” with Gen. xxviii., Ezek. v. 5, etc.
1   The text treated by Hornmel in G.G.G., 323 ff. Reisner, Hymnen, p. 142, describes the heavenly Babylon (H. Zimmern).
2   Compare “the people of Adad,” “the people of Anion,” in the lists from Taannek.
3   The design of twelve tribes is treated of later ; for the twelve Etrurian states, see Chap. III., under Etruscans ; Abulfaradsch, in his Hist. Dynast., 101, has twelve Arabian tribes. The Seleucian kingdom was divided into seventy-two parts. In the Middle Ages in Hungary there were nominally seventy-three states. The medieval Church had seventy European states, each one under its special patron saint ; comp. B.N. T., 93, and Winckler, Ex or. lux, ii. 2, 44.
4   By this it is particularly dear that the celestial, not the earthly, is the original of the picture, for how could they arrive at seven zones of the earth ?
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Re: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST (sumer) I
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and in Eastern Asia.1 Boll has found in the texts which he treats of in his Sphcera a division of the globe into twelve zones (Dode- kaoros) which correspond to the twelve-year periods of the Eastern Asiatic zodiacal cycle, of which each one is named after a beast. The twelve parts of the Dodekaoros which correspond to the signs of the zodiac are as follows :— 2
Land.   Dodekaoros.   Zodiac (celestial earth).
Persia   Mouse   (Aries) (ram).
Babylon   Hound   Taurus (bull).
Cappadocia   Serpent   Gemini (twins).
Armenia   Beetle   Cancer (crab).
Asia   Ass   Leo (lion).
Ionia   Lion   Virgo (virgin).
Libya   Duck   (Capricorn, i.e. goat), libra (scales).
Italy   Bull   Scorpio (scorpion).
Crete   Hawk   Sagittarius (archer).
Syria   Ape   Capricornus (ibex goat).
Egypt   Ibis   Aquarius (water-bearer).
India   Crocodile   Pisces (fish).
In Chinese mythical history also the earth appears as an image of the cosmos. Yao (about 2350 B.C.) restored the land from the results of a flood like the Deluge, "dug out the hills, made the mountains disappear*, and controlled the heavens,” as the Shu-king says. The land was divided amongst his followers according to the four cardinal points, and according to the four mountains, and over each one was set a chief; twelve mandarins who ruled the people, six overseers, for agriculture, domestic life, handicrafts and food, and finally over music and education, for their protection. Somewhat later the whole was divided into nine provinces, each one given to a regent, the central province, Ki, being ruled over by the Emperor himself. In the centre was the palace, surrounded bv fields, then in a surrounding circle lay the fields of the people, in a second circle the meadows for pasturage, and in a third the woods and hunting grounds. The provinces stretched out towards each other in the woods, and a highwa}* led from one chief city to the other. The Emperor was chief-priest, he established the festivals, and he alone amongst the people sacrificed to Tien, the Lord of Heaven; see Gon*es, Mythengeschichtc, p. 17.
1   See Ideler, Zcitrechnung der Chinesen, 1839, 5 ff.
2   Boll, Sphcera, 296, and also Winckler, O.L.Z., 1904, 96 [ = Krit. Schr., iii. 96), with the explanation of Capricornus in Syria. The Zodiac and the Dodekaoros together are shown in the Egyptian Globe (Kircher, CEdipus ^Egyptiacus, ii. 2, 206 set/.). In denoting the ecliptic, the figures of the animal cycle are used in Japan, even making the first animal correspond to Aries (see Stern, Gott. Gel. Am., 1840, 2013^.).
EARTHLY IMAGE OF THE CELESTIAL WORLD 57
2.   The Temple
The rule of the gods upon earth corresponds to their rule in heaven. And as each divinity has his special sphere of action and place of manifestation in heaven (“ houses ” in heaven, see p. 29, temens, rejuei'o?, templum), so he has also his province upon earth. In this sense the deity is Lord of the Country (Canaanite, ba'cil; Babylonian, belli), and for this reason the conqueror of a country would remove the statue of the god and put in its place a statue of the god of that part of the country in which he reigned, and when the deity had abandoned the country, the land became masterless.1 In the war against Judea the Ark of the Covenant represented the statue of the god in the mind of the King of Babylon. And the people held this same view when they said: “Jehovah seeth us not; Jehovah hath forsaken the land.'1 According to Ezekiel’s vision Jehovah dwelt in Babylon during the Exile ; the Merkaba (lion, bull, man, eagle), four supporters, form the chariot upon which he journeys thither; in Ezek. ix. 3, x. 4, he visits his throne in Jerusalem.
The whole country is a counterpart of the celestial world, and the temple in particular represents it. As each celestial “ house11 is represented by an earthly place of worship, so the cosmos is portrayed in the temple towers (comp. p. 307), each story dedicated to one planet, and showing the corresponding colour (see Chap. XII.). Gudea speaks of the temple of the seven tubqati, the ascent of which symbolises the ascent to heaven and therefore is a work well pleasing to God : Ningirsu foretells a happy fate to whomsoever mounts to the summit.2 Hammurabi says3 he made the Ebarra temple, the Sun-temple of Sippar, very large, it was “ like the heavenly dwelling-place ” (slmbat).
The stories of the Temple correspond to the stages of the zodiac,4 the pillars of the Temple to the culminating points
1 See Winckler in K. A. T., 3rd ed., 15S, and for the following Gesch. Isr., ii. 2; F., iii. 383.
“ Cyl. G, col. i.
3   Cod. iii. 29 f.
4   Comp. p. 6 and the “celestial ladder” of Jacob’s dream.
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(east and west or north and south, according to the orientation). In individual cases the nSurov represented again the throne of God, steps led up to the statue of the Deity.
But as the Temple is the reputed centre of a world, so every district is a microcosmos in which the myths of the Creation, of the combat with and final victory over the powers of darkness, and all the other phenomena of the celestial world, are supposed to repeat themselves. It is for this reason we meet with the myths in such thousandfold variations which, however, all refer back to the same fundamental Babylonian ideas, as already said on p. 4. The mark of their common extraction lies in the ever-recurring motif (story, plot, nucleus) always derived from the same celestial, astral, mythological source.
The Sanctuary (Adyton) represents the seat of the summits deus. Each temple represents the centre of gravity of the world, and each local deity is, in his district, the chief god. The Temple teaching points out that its own place of worship answers to a corresponding place in the cosmos. And since each divine manifestation is potentially in itself the complete Omnipotence, it is obvious that the blessings of the Divinity must be revealed in each respective place of worship through the person of the particular deity honoured there.
The plan of the Temple is given from heaven. The Gudea architectural texts, for example, treat to a great extent of this divine definition—the individual parts of the Temple correspond to the celestial model.
The same conception is shown in the Israelite Sanctuary, only more spiritualised and corresponding to each stage in the development of the idea of Jehovah as “ Lord of Lords, the God of Gods,” or as the only God, who made heaven and earth : 1. In the 'Okel mo‘ed, where Jehovah is throned upon the Cherubim, with the objects used in his worship Avhich represent the astral world. 2. In the Temple of Solomon. 3. In the visionary Temple of Ezekiel. These will be spoken of in detail in their respective places.
3.   The Throne
To the oriental mind the king was representative of God upon earth, God incarnate. The king ascended the Kussu ilvti (“ throne of the Deity ”), the palace itself as heavenly throne
EARTHLY IMAGE OF THE CELESTIAL WORLD 59
(“lofty gate”) enjoyed divine honour. To fear God and reverence the king was held to be the chief commandment.1 The victories of the king appear as victories over the powers of darkness. The accession and the reign are in certain instances described as the dawn of the New Age, as the Golden Age. The ideas of the Kingdom of God and of the Empire of the World are Ancient-Oriental.2 In the Etana myth Ishtar and Bel searched throughout the earth for a king, and meanwhile the insignia, sceptre, fillet, cap, and staff lay ready in heaven before Anu, the summus dens. And a hymn to Marduk says: “He brings forth for the king sceptre, itkurtu (?), weapons, and crown.”
Consequently the King- of Babylon represented Marduk. In the Babylonian age the sun stood in Taurus, but the planet Jupiter is designated “ Bull of the Sun,” and his place in the heavens ‘•'Furrow of Heaven” (pidnu sha shame, see Honnnel, Auf and Abh., 356), and a plough is the attribute of Osiris. The king is therefore endowed with the motifs of the Marduk-bull, which brings the spring, the New Age. Nebuchadnezzar calls himself ‘•'husbandman (ikkaru) of Babylon.” The Emperor of China draws a furrow every year with a yellow plough: this is now looked upon simply as a country festival custom, but the Ancient-Oriental teaching shows the original meaning. Compare the plough motif at the beginning of a new epoch in the case of Saul, the Polish Piast, the Czechish Primislaus, and the custom at the founding of a city of marking round the boundary with a plough ; see Winckler, Ex orientc bur, ii. 2, 52. Comp. p. 74-.
In Babylon New Year was the festival of the inauguration of the king. He then “ grasps the hands of Marduk,” thereby taking over the government from him. The punt dkrur (“ I cast the lot ”) of the Assyrian kings has the same meaning; on New Years Day destiny is settled by the deity, and the king acts as his representative.
The king’s court is counterpart of the celestial court, the throne representing the seat of the summits dcus, led up to
1   “Thou shalt fear God, thou shalt honour the King” (C.T., xiii. 29 f.). Comp. 1 Pet. ii. 17 : “ Fear God, honour the King.”
2   The kings of South Babylonia use the divine determinative, as do Sargon I. and Naramsin. Hammurabi calls himself “divine king of the city.” The Pharaohs lay claim to the same honour. The Emperor of China is “Son of Heaven” {Tien, “heaven”; Shang-ticn, “highest Lord of the uppermost heaven”).
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by steps.1 The highest offices (because the most ancient) are those of baker and cupbearer, and they also correspond to a divine function : in Marduk’s court there are the two offices, Mind-tkul-beUy “What drinks my lord?1-’ and Mma-ishti-beli, 44 What eats my lord?”; also in the Adapa myth the 44 divine baker ”2 appears. The third dignity which is occasionally met with (e.g. amongst the Assyrians) is that of commander-inchief of the army.
In Rev. iv. 2 ff. we have a description of a meeting of the celestial senate; comp. Dan. vii. 9 et seq., and see B.K.T., 14 ff. Near the divan the chief office-holders sit on the right and left; the mother of the sons of Zebedee had this idea in her mind. Another ceremonial places the king’s mother by his side; see 1 Kings ii. 19; Jer. xiii. 18; and comp. 1 Kings xv. 19, She then corresponds to the Mother-goddess, Queen of Heaven, by the side of the summits dens ; see pp. 39 f- and 111.
The throne, led up to by steps, corresponds to the throne of the Deity in the Adyton.3
X. ASTROLOGY
4* Originally astrology was not a superstition, but the expression, that is, the result of a religion, or conception of imposing uniformity.”4 It is founded upon a consistent application of the post hoc ergo propter hoc, and it can no longer be denied that this conception originated in Babylon. By an unquestioned tradition astrology is held to be 44 the wisdom of the Chaldees,” and long before the discovery of any records Dodwell recognised Babylonia as the source. Ideler, Histor. Untersuchungen, p. 1-17, considers Egypt the home. This is comprehensible, as it was through Egypt that the wisdom of the ancient East passed to the West. India was considered (Bohlen) after the discovery of Indian records, and the old hypothesis of China as the source was reawakened by the
1   Hebr. miftan ; see Zeph. i. 9. Comp. 1 Sam. v. 1 ff.
2   See Gen. xli. 10. Comp. Zimmern, D.Z.M.G., liii. 115 ff.
3   Wunsche, “Salomos l'hron und Hippoclrom,” Ex or. lux, ii. 3, offers much valuable confirmatory material.
4   Doll, Splusra, pp. 45 f., in relation to H. Winckler’s explanation of the Ancient- Oriental conception of the universe. The texts in Thompson’s Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers. Comp. Ungnad, “ Die Deutung der Zukunft bei den Babyloniern und Assyriern,’’ A.O., 3rd ed.; A. Jeremias, A.B.A., 2nded.,pp. 26 ff.
ASTROLOGY
81
punitive expedition against that land. One by one the clues leading from farthest East through Persia to China and India have been followed, and in the same wav the connection between the ancient Mexican calendar and Babylon will be made clear. On the Babylonian origin of Chinese astronomy, see p. 12.
Pliny, in his Hist. Xat., vii. 56, speaks of ancient Babylonian observations which were recorded on burnt bricks or tiles (“ e diverso Epigenes apud Babylonios DCCXX annorum observationes siderum coctilibus laterculis inscriptas docet”). Simplicius says in his Commentary to the works of Aristotle de ccele (p. 123a), that Callis- thenes, who accompanied Alexander the Great to Asia, sent a number of astronomical observations from Babylon to his teacher Aristotle, which Porphyrius assures us embraced a period of 1905 years before Alexander. Diodorus, ii. 145, speaks of the 473,000 years of Babylonian observations, and Cicero, De divinatione, i. 19 (comp, also ii. 46), jeers at the pride of the Babylonians in boasting of 470,000 years’ (“ CCCCLXX milia annorum ”) observations of the stars. These enormous figures agree with the statements of Berossus about the primeval kings of the ages before the Flood. Thales journeyed to the East in order to calculate the eclipses. Pythagoras was an Assju’ian mercenary, who,according to Jamblichus, Vita Pyth., allowed himself to be persuaded by Thales to go to Egypt to receive instruction from the priests in Memphis and Thebes, and there learnt the Chaldean wisdom. Ptolemy, according to his “ excerpts,” got his facts from Hipparchus, but the source of Hipparchus’s learning was Babylon. The Ptolemaic Canon, codified observations extending through hundreds of years, starts with the beginning of the age of Aries and the corresponding reforms of the Babylonian king Nabonassar. Syncellus, Chronogr., 207 (comp, p. 75), says: c: Since Nabonassar the Chaldeans have noted the movements of the stars.”
Since the aim of the Ancient-Oriental u revealed11 teaching was to prove all phenomena of the world to be the outcome of the ruling power of divinity, so, naturally, the will and actions of the gods were read from the movements of the stars and constellations. The priests of a sanctuary observed the corresponding cosmic 7-eyuei'o?, temenos (temple), and read the will of the gods and the course of fate from the motion of the stars ; or he read the will of the gods from the sheep’s liver, which in its lines and form reflected the universe.
Ptolemy, in his work On the Influence and Character of the Stars, iii. 3, tells us more of the secret: “ What may be understood of the nature of things is to be learnt from study of the configuration of the related places.” First one observes the
m   
place in the zodiac which is connected with, or related to, the circumstance in question. Then one considers the stars which rule over or have power in that place. Further, one notes the nature of those stars and their position in regard to the horizon and the zodiac, and finally one draws conclusions from their general position at morning and evening in regard to the sun and the horizon.” In Diodorus, ii. 81 : “At birth the planets are most influential for good or for evil. From their nature or appearance may be gathered what the person must encounter. They (the Chaldeans) have foretold the fortunes of many kings, for instance, Alexander when he conquered Darius, and Antigonus and Seleucus Nicator after him. And they seem always to have foretold correctly.” The astronomer Julius Firmieus, who warned the sons of Constantine against heathenish errors, addressed prayers to the planets for the welfare of the emperor and his house, according to his Astron., i. T, IT. In the Middle Ages emperors and popes consulted astrologers. Tycho Brahe, who in his Calendarium naturale magicum scientifically defended astrology, lived at the court of Rudolph II. The philosopher Bacon calls astrology the most important science. Philip Melanchthon in 15-15 wrote a recommendatory preface to the horoscope drawn for the Emperor Maximilian by the astrologer Schoner. Kepler deprecates superstitious misuse, but remains firm in the theory of the unity of the stars with the earth and with the souls of men. At the present day astrologers are consulted about important events in Persia, Turkey, India, and in China. In the nineteenth century the astronomer Pfaff in Erlangen defended the connection of the stars “ with the life of the earth and the actions and sufferings of the earthly creation,” and the philosopher and chemist Fechner of Leipzig taught the old conception in new form in his psychophysics. The hour of birth of the Crown Prince of Italy wras foretold lately by the position of the planets by the astrologer Pap us for a Neapolitan newspaper. For astrology amongst the Jews, see   p. 50 ft'.
XI. THE SACKED NUMBERS
Since the movements of the stars and constellations by which the will of the divinity is revealed and also the “ correspondence ” of the parts of the cosmos are expressed in numbers, it follows that there is a mathematical foundation for the Ancient-Oriental religion and for mathematics a religious, that is, an astral foundation.1 In this lies the significance of the mystic numbers.
1 Therefore Oannes brings   ara to mankind, see p. 4S. This is the
foundation of the teaching of Pythagoras. Further, upon this paragraph see now Iiommel, in Oriental Lit. Zlg., May 1907. Upon the Babylonian origin of the “ Platonic number” 5, see   2nd ecb, pp. 73 ff.
THE SACRED NUMBERS
63
All numbers are sacred, and when here and there certain of them take precedence it may be ascribed to the influence of some particular calendar system.
The fundamental ciphers of the astral system are, as we have already seen, 5 and 7, the number of the interpreters of the divine will. They give the root numbers of the duodecimal, that is, the sexagesimal system : 5 + 7 = 12; 5x12 = 60.1 Syncellus 2 says the Babylonians had a sossos of 60 years, a neros of 10 x 60 years, and a saros of 60 x 60 years. The cuneiform figures express with the same sign (a vertical wedge) 1 and 60 and 3600 = 60 x 60. But the nature of the cuneiform numbers shows that the decimal system also was known in Babylon. Both systems are of prehistoric origin. We give in the following some specimens of the application of the numbers ;—3
0.   The introduction of the cipher betokens a great intellectual achievement.4 We cannot tell whether it was already known to the Babylonians. There seem to be hints of it, e.g. in the writing of 600 (neros?).
2.   Sun and moon, division of the year into two; summer and winter, seedtime and harvest, frost and heat, day and night. Corresponding to this in the universe is the division into two as we find it in the oldest Attic poetry (Uranus and Gaia in zEschylus, etc.).
3.   Triple division of the universe, corresponding to triple division of the zodiac and of the year. Three great stars as rulers of the zodiac, thence arising the two divine triads, Anu, Bel, Ea; and Sin, Sham ash, and Ishtar. To this may be added the triads of the divine emanations :5 Apsu, Tiamat, Mummu ; Ea, Dam kina, Marduk ; on the other hand, Ea, father ; Marduk,
1   The division of the zodiac into twelve according to the solar orbit, that is, into twenty-four according to the lunar orbit (V. R. 46, very likely by the twenty-four days of the sidereal month in which the moon is visible), cannot be held as the origin of the duodecimal system. See under “ 12.”
2   Chronogr., ed. Goar, p. 17.
3   Comp. Winckler, “ Himmels- und Weltenbild der Babylonier,” A.O., iii. 2-3. For drawing parallels from other than Babylonian and from non-Oriental people, compare the fundamental remark, pp. 4 seq., 61. A preference for uneven numbers is universal: Nitmero dens impare gandet.
4   See Gustav Oppert, Berl. Gesellsch. fiir Anthropologic, 1900, 122 seq.
5   Compare the triads of the Egyptian religion : Keb, Nut, Shu, fig. 1 ; Hathor with sun and moon. Ancient Iranian moon, sun, Tishtrya (Sirius).
64   
son: Nabu, teacher of the will. In measurement of time the three seasons correspond to them, spring, summer, and winter (as in Homer), where probably six months are given to winter; further, the division of the months into 3x9, that is, 3x10 davs, and the night in 3 weeks.
4.   The quarterly phenomena of the solar orbit and the phases of the moon and Venus. Corresponding to them are the four
planets (without Venus) as representatives of the four ends of the earth: Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn.1
5.   The enlargement to 7 for root number of the duodecimal cipher system (division into 12 of the orbits of sun and mocn) and also along with 12 the second root number of 60 which is indicated (in cuneiform with 1) as a unit, 5x12 = 60. It arises in changing the hepta- gram into the pentagram, and two methods of calculation are possible. Either the two planets of misfortune are eliminated, when Saturn is replaced bv the sun and Mars by the moon, or the sun and moon are left out from the 7 ; see the drawings on p. 37. The 7 planet colours then correspondingly become 5.2 In the division of time 5 (Ijamushtu) appears in the 5-day
1   Compare the four span of horses in Zech. vi. i seq., which are sent out to the four quarters of heaven. Comp. M.V.A.G., 1901, 327, the four throne- bearers as representative of the four corners of the world in the Merkaba of Ezekiel, etc. Compare also the Coptic picture of the circle of the universe, fig. 22, and compare with this p. 24, n. 3 ; and p. 31, n. 2.
2   Blue, Mercury ; black, Saturn ; yellow, Jupiter; white, Venus ; red, Mars ; see Hommel, Anfs. u. Abhandl., 383 seq., and comp. B.N.T. with Rev. xxi. The five colours of the Chinese, which amongst the Manchus and Mongolians are doubled (like the corresponding five elements of the Chinese, see p. iS, n. 2, comp. p. 53, n. 1), forming the ten-day cycle, serve according to Vettius Valens in ? Salmasius, de annis climactericis et de antiqua astroiogia, 164S, p. 260, “amongst the ancients to designate the five planets ” ; see Stern, Gott. gel. Ans., 1840, 2031. For the planetary colours amongst the “ Mandreans,” see Chwolsohn, ii. 401, 65S, 839-
 
FIG. 22.—Coptic representation of the circle of life, after Kircher. CEdipus ^Egyptiacus, ii. 2, 193 ; iii. 154.
THE SACRED NUMBERS
65
week, which, according to the witness of the so-called Cappadocian cuneiform tablet, was in use in Babylon simultaneously with the 7-day week (shcbua).1 Traces of such a 5-day week are possibly to be found in the calendar V. R. 48, where on the 5th and 25th days intercourse with women is forbidden. Twelve 5-day weeks (hamushat) give a double month of 60 days: 70 5-day weeks give a lunar year of 350 (instead of 354) days; 72 give a solar year of 360 (instead of 365^); 73 give a solar year including the 5 (5J) equalising days (compare the 5 Gata days along with the intercalary month every 120 years in the old Persian calendar, and the 5 “waste days’’’’ in the Mexican calendar). This explains the significance of the 70 with variations 72 or 73 as the number of the complete cycle. As the 7-dav weeks in the Apocalypse correspond to “weeks of years1’’ of 7 and 70 years, so the 5-day week corresponds to the lustrum? The sexagesimal system gives the period of 60 years =5x12 (having the same significance in the East as the “ century11 of the decimal system). But chiefly in myths and festival plays the 5 plays a great part as the number of the “superfluousv’ equalising days: festival of Epagomenae, feast of the Expulsion of Tyrants, etc. Comp, p. 93.®
6.   The number of the double months = 12 5-day weeks. These were still extant in the Roman calendar (established by Numa Pompilius, originating in the East and introduced through the Etruscans), and in the “seasons’" of 2 months each of the pre-Islamite Arabs.4 In this case the sun (that is to say, Saturn) disappears from the order of 7 planets. The colour lists II. R. 26, 48 note 6 colours ; to the 5 planet colours which we mentioned before, green, the colour belonging to the moon, is added.5
1   See Winckler, F., ii. 95 ff., 354 ff.
2   Dan. vii. 25, “after two times and a half” the end shall appear, i.e. in one and a half hamushtu—week of years ; see Winckler, h.A. T., 3rd ed., 335 ; Ex. or. lux, i. I, p. iS ; and chiefly F., ii. 95 ff.
3   Upon five and seven as lunar number and solar number, see Winckler, Baby- ionische Geisterkultur, p. 74.
4   See Wellhausen, Skizzen, iii. 101.
5   IT. R. 26, 4S counts six colours ; green as colour of the moon, see Stricken, M.V.A.G., 1902, 159 ff.
VOL. I.
a
66   
7.   The number of the planets, including the sun and moon. This has undoubtedly led to the introduction of a 7-day week.1 7 is the number of the sacrificers, of the deadly sins, of the vengeances, of the prayers.2 3 In the greater cycle the “ week ” of 7, that is of 70, years corresponds to the 7-day week ; hence the meaning in the Apocalypse. The evil 7 is connected with the 7 planets (Nergal, Underworld) and with the 7 stars (Pleiades), the star of Nergal, representing the season of storm, the time of the equinoctial storms before the beginning of spring, in its 40 days’ disappearance below the horizon ; see p. 68.
9.3 In the Babylonian East 9 might be looked for as a quartering of the orbit:   4x9 = 56 decani (see p. 12),
4x90 = 360. The Egyptian doctrine of On-Heliopolis is dominated by 9, the greater and the lesser “Nine” gods. In the Mexican calendar 9 is the root number. Occasionally too 9 is current as the third part of the sidereal lunar months : 27-1-3 = 9. This idea is indicated by the nones in the Roman calendar, which is a fossilised remnant of a past system.4 Possibly it exists also in the calendar laws of Numa. The 27 places for sacrifice also point to the number of days of the sidereal months.
10. See p. 63 for the decimal system. Tenths correspond to the 36 decani in the circle of 360. The division would give a week of 10 days. In later ages the twelve thousands became, perhaps through Eastern influence, changed into ten thousands, as with the Persians.
1   Comp. p. 15, n. 3, pp. 43 ff. ; and in Gen. ii. 3. As is known, Dio Cassius refers the allotment of the days of the week to the planets back to the Egyptians. For Western Asia the coherence of the Nabatsean document Maqrisi bears witness ; see pp. 42 ff. For the seven-day week, compare also ICampf um Babel u. Bibel, 4th ed., pp. 33, 43 ff.
2   Numb, xxiii. 29: Balaam offers seven bullocks and seven rams upon seven altars. Another characteristic example is Josh. vi. : on the seventh day Jericho falls, after seven priests have blown the trumpet seven days, on the seventh day seven times.
3   W. H. Roscher in his “ Die Sieben- u. Neunzahl im Kultus u. Mythus der Griechen,” Kgl. Sachs. Ges. der Wissenschaft. Phil.-hist., Kl. 24, No. 1, offers rich material in regard to seven and nine. The connection of the theory of numbers with the ancient East is here unfortunately ignored.
4   As also by the festival weeks of the nundince remaining out of a vanished calendar, corresponding to the later epagomenen ; see Winckler, Ex oriente lux, 1. 1, p.„2i.
THE SACRED NUMBERS
67
11.   Marduk’s number, which as star of the new seon builds the zodiac. 11 is the number of the zodiac because a picture of the sun is veiled in it; comp. Joseph’s cosmic dream, Gen. xxxvii.: sun, moon, and the 11 signs of the zodiac bow themselves before him.
12.   The duodecimal system does not arise from the zodiac (comp. pp. 10 ff.), but formerly the system of 12 was favoured by its means.1 Since Jupiter takes 12 years to move round the zodiac, one looks for a Jupiter year : but I think there has as yet no trace of it been found in Babylonian texts.'2 Another form of the 12-vear cycle is found in the Eastern Asiatic zodiac; see p. 50. In Babylonia 12 corresponds to the division of the year by lunar months, as also to the calculation of theoretical months by the equalisation of the solar and lunar year. After 12 revolutions the moon again meets with the sun in the same zodiacal sign; comp. p. 25. The cycle of the solar year corresponds to the day of the Micro year, and is therefore divided into 12 double hours.3 The corresponding measure of distance is the mile, which according to Oriental ideas answers to a double hour. The counting simply by hours would correspond to the division of the year into 2 (summer and winter = day and night). The unit of this division is the second: 3600 seconds (chief unit of the sexagesimal system) = 60 minutes = 1 hour. 12 possesses a peculiar significance as
1   The division of the earth into twelve countries, symbolised by beasts, and the twelve-year periods of the East-Asiatic animal cycle, correspond to the cycle of twelve ; see p. 55 seq.
2   In India a twelve-year cycle is called vrihaspaii mana, Jupiter year. Also the Chinese have an ancient cycle of twelve years ; see Stern, Bott. Gel. Anz., 1840, 202S.
•! That there is no Hebrew word for hour is, of course, no proof that the timereckoning of the hour did not exist. The sundial of Ahaz, 2 Kings x.x. 9-11, and comp. Isa. xxxviii, S, must have marked hours which correspond to the stages. In the Letters of Amarna the hours are called in “ Canaanite ” she-ti. Comp. III. R. 51, No. I : In the day and night equinoxes six Kaspu day, and six Kaspu night. Achilles Tatius, Isag. in A rattan (see Winckler, IG.A.T., 3rd ed., 32S) says the Chaldeans took the 30th part of the hour in the equinox as the unit of the solar orbit. The unit of the Micro-year, therefore, is the double minute, which corresponds to the daily forward movement of the sun through the ecliptic. In the twelve hours of its daily course overhead the sun moves a 720th part of the circuit. The corresponding part of the day (of the Micro-year) is a double minute.
68   
the number of the intercalary days (instead of 5) in the bringing up of the true lunar year (354) to 366 days.1
13.   In the calculation of 12 intercalary days as festival time the 13th day is the beginning of business ; see pp. 18, ii. f. It is so in the Arabian lunar year; see Winckler, /'., ii. 350. This is the meaning; of 13 alon^ with the lunar number 318; Gen. xiv. 4, 14. On the other hand, 13 is the number of an intercalary month which is signified by the 13th zodiacal sign, the Raven. The Persian calendar, e.g., reckons 360 days—5 Gata and a 13th month every 120 years besides. In the Mexican Tona- lamatl (that is, Book of Fate, or Book of Good and Evil Days), which is founded upon calculations by means of Venus, 13 is one of the root numbers.2
14.   Number of the gate of the Underworld ; for example, in the Erishkigal myth, see A.O., i. 3, 2nd ed.
15.   Number of the full moon (comp. fig. 15, p. 36); for instance, for this reason Nebuchadnezzar is said to have built his palace in 15 clays; comp. Ex or. lux, ii. note 2, 24 and 42.
40. Rain and winter time are embodied in the Pleiades, which disappear in the light of the sun for 40 days, roughly speaking, and are heliacally abolished at the beginning of spring; see p. 66. They are days of storm and misfortune, IV. R. 5 ; days of equinoctial storm when, according to Hesiod, Opera et dies, v. 385, navigation begins (see Winckler, K.A.T., 3rd ed., 389), comp. A.G., 27. 9. The number of the Pleiades is, therefore, that of all want and privation : 40 years in the wilderness under Moses, according to the Priestly Code ; Elijah wandered 40 days in the desert; Ezra hid himself with 5 men for 40 days in a secret place, Ezra iv. 14, 22; 40 days1 fast, Matt. iv. 2; 40 days of the castus in the worship of Attis
1   Up to the present attested only in Germanic regions there is twelfth night, with processions of the gods and decisions of Fate in Germanic mythology ; dreams predict the events of the coming twelve months.
2   The short period here amounts to 13 x 20 days, the long period to fifty-two years. It may be explained as follows : the average time of the synodic revolution of Venus, which is repeatedly expressed in the Tonalamall, amounts (broadly speaking) to 584 days ; eight solar years equal five revolutions of Venus. One solar year 5x73 and one lunar year 8 x 73 give together 13 x 73 days. 20 x 13 x 73 days are fifty-two years. See Seler, Codex Vaticanus, No. 3773, 1st part, p. 3 seq., Berlin, 1902.
THE AGES
69
in Rome; 40 days’ fast in the Roman calendar ; 40 stripes save one, 2 Cor. ii. 24, etc. : comp.   2nd ed., p. 87 f.
70, 72, 73. The number of the cycle according to the fyamushtu reckoning : 70 = 350 -j- 5 ; 72 = 360 A 5 ; 73 = 365 4- 5 ; see p. 65. Hence 70 nations in the table of nations; 70 (variant 72) disciples as the larger cycle; 72 elders in the academy of Rabbi Elieser; 70 (72) translators of the Bible (Septuagint), etc.; see Winckler, Ex or. lux, ii. 12, p. 62.
XII. THE AGES
The cycle of the great stars gives the divisions of time in the calendar: day, year, a?on. The division of the cycle into 721 corresponds to the periods of the 72 solar years in which the movement of the fixed stars has advanced one day ahead of the sun. Five such periods correspond to the year of 360 days,2 50x72 gives the Babylonian Saros.3 The most important calculation in the Babylonian calendar is that which reckons the cycle by the gradual backward movement of the equinoctial points through the zodiac.1
1 See above. The “ Egyptian” division into 2 or 4 or 12 or 36 or 72 is borne witness to by Jamblichus, De Mystcriis, viii. 3 (Bunsen, Die Plejadcn, p. 22).
- In practice it corresponds equally in solar or lunar reckoning, as the month has by solar reckoning thirty days (and to these are added the intercalary days) and the new moon falls also alternately on the 29th or 30th.
“ 500 x 72 = 36,000 years amounts to the cycle of Berossus; 5000x72 = 360,000 years is the great year of the Chinese. This corresponds literally to the idea, a thousand years are as one day, Ps. xc. 4 (see Bunsen, loc. cit., iS ff.). Upon the Egyptian Sirius periods, see   2nd ed., pp. 61 ff., and comp. Mahler in
O.L.Z., 1905, 473 ff. : “Just as the Egyptian conception of the earthly geography of Egypt was a picture of celestial geography, so also the calendar was a copy of the great celestial calendar, the ‘day’ corresponded to the ‘quadriennium,’ the ‘ year ’ to the great ‘ Sothis period ’: the quadriennium consisted of 1461 earthly days, the Sothis period of 1461 Egyptian years.”
4   The following material may be noted in regard to the universally prevalent idea of the ages: according to Plutarch and Bundehesh, the “ruling age of the long period” following on the “ infinite age” consists of 12,000 years which are ordained by Ormuzd for this world : 4 x 3000 years. A sign of the zodiac marks each millennium. The Book of Laws of Mani has four ages, each one worse than the last ; 4S00 plus 3600 plus 2400 plus 1200 (an artificial system founded on old ideas). The Etruscans, according to Suidas, s.v. Tvpprjvia (Tyrrhenia), have twelve thousand years, each under the rule of a sign of the zodiac. Hesiod and Ovid witness to the teaching of the ever-deteriorating ages (gold, silver, copper, iron) in the classical world ; Hesiod, Opera, 90 ff. ; Ovid, Metam., i. 89 ff. The Biblical and Jewish material will be treated later ; see Index, “Ages.”
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The inclination of the earth’s axis to the sun’s path is variable. Corresponding to this the point of intersection of the apparent path of the sun with the equator also moves. The ancients observed the following phenomenon : the position of the sun at the spring equinox moves as observed from year to year farther westward. In seventy-two years the advance has reached a length of one degree, so that it takes 72 x 360 = 25920 years for the equinoctial point to move through the whole zodiac, and on an average 2160 years for it to move through one zodiacal sign. The spring point passes in this course once through the water region and the fire region. Here lies the basis for the teaching of the destruction of the world by the Deluge and by aJire-flood.1 2 We believe it to be beyond all doubt that the Babylonians already knew of the precession (even if only in approximate calculations) in the oldest time known to us, and based the teaching of the ages of the world upon it. The establishment of the east direction by the gnomon must have forced the phenomenon upon the notice of the observer. For further detail upon this, see A.B.A., 2nd ed., pp. 67 ff.
“ Berossus, who interpreted Bel, says that everything (previously described) is ruled by the course of the stars, and he is so certain of this, that he fixes the times of the burning of the world and of the Flood. He maintains that the world will be burnt when all the stars which now move in different orbits meet together in Cancer (in the Aries reckoning the solstitial point is in Cancer; we still speak of the tropic of Cancer), so that they all stand in even line in the same sign, and that the future flood (following thereupon) will occur when the same conjunction happens in Capricorn (i.e. winter solstice). For the former is the summer solstice and the latter winter solstice; these are the determinative zodiacal signs, for in them lie the solstice points (momenta) of the ages” (Seneca, see Muller, Fragm. hist, grcec., ii. 510).- Compare Jos., Ant., j 2, 3. Adam foretold a fire-flood and a deluge.
1   A light-Jlood in opposition to the water-flood (Jensen, K.B., vi. i, 563, 580, and with him Zimmern, A'.A. 71, 3rd ed., 495, 549) does not exist. The Biblical story of the Deluge, meant as an historical event, is related after the manner of the mythological teaching of the ages of the universe (water-flood); the end of the world is in like manner told according to this teaching (fire-flood).
2   The opinion might be held that the statement of Berossus can only be explained by the precession through the water region and fire region. According to Seneca, Berossus based it upon something else. When to the eye of the observer all the planets stand in Cancer, the destruction of the world by fire will occur (that is to say, the planetary divinities gather together to build a new world) ; when all the planets stand in Capricorn, the deluge will occur. Has the recorder varied one of the statements ? The conflagration of the world in the Avesta can also only rest upon the teaching of the passage of the world in its development through the fire region. The Mexicans have four ages of the world, amongst them the fire-flood and water-flood ; nearly all the American cosmogonies mention both these catastrophes ; see Ehrenreich, Die My then u. Legenden der siidamerikanischen Urvolker, p. 30.
THE AGES
71
The statement of Berossus about the age of the Deluge agrees with the mention of kings before the Flood ” in contradistinction to kings after the Flood, for one conceives in the past:
1. Lam ububi, the Age before the Flood.—That would correspond to the time when the spring point moved through Anu’s realm in the zodiac (4. Signs). The beginning was the age of Paradise, and then the sages lived.1 Berossus mentions along with the sages the primeval kings, who together lived through 120 Saren. See chapter on “ Ancestors ”; and comp. Rost., M.V.A.G., 1897, 105 seq.
2.   Age of the Flood.—The spring point passed through Ea’s realm, before passing into Gemini, where history begins.
3.   The Historical Age.—The spring point passes through Bel’s kingdom. The end is the fire-flood, the summer solstice of the ages. Thence arises the new world.
From traces of calendar reforms in the course of Babylonian history it would appear that the Babylonians in historical ages made use of calculations taken from records of the most ancient times.2
The observation was then continued into the periods of history which we know, and explains the application of the theory of the ages of the world in the Book of Daniel, in Persia and in India, etc.
Age of Gemini
In the most remote time upon which we have as jet any historical light,3 the spring equinox was in the zodiacal sign of Gemini.4 Sin and Nergal, i.c. moon and sun, were looked upon
1   Assurbanipal speaks of inscriptions from the time before the Flood ; a magic text mentions a decision of the old sages before the Flood. K.A.T., 3rd ed., 537. V. R. 44, 20 a speaks of kings “after the Flood.”
2   The importance of the age-reckoning in Ancient-Oriental history is acknowledged by H. Winckler ; see Geschichte Israels, ii. 282 seq. Ex or. lux, 1. 27. 50 ; comp. F., ii. 370, and now also iii. 2S9 seq.
3   About the traces of older ages, see Winckler, F., ii. 368, and Hommel, Aufs. u. Abh., ii. 446 seq. The late Egyptian Cancer-reckoning is an archaism.
4   This at least appears to be so looking backward from the zodiacal age best known to us in legend. In the historical age of Gemini it did not fall at the spring point, but at the autumn point. But the fact remains the same. If the sun was in Gemini at the spring equinox the full moon would be in opposition at the autumn point.
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as twins by the Babylonians, as we shall see later,1 that is to say, the waxing and the waning moon. But in their solar and lunar reckoning the moon takes foremost place, being in this system the life-bringer, in opposition to the sun, which represents the Underworld. Therefore an age of Gemini must in every case have been an age of the Moon-god. Sargon says in his state inscription of the kings of Meluhha that since far-distant days,
 
since the icon of the moon (ctdt Nannar), his fathers had sent no more messengers to his predecessors. The royal astrologers therefore who connected the events with the stars appear to have calculated by the old age. Other statements by Sargon also show the same phenomenon that, instead of Nisan, Sivan, which lies two places backwards, is treated as the beginning of the year, as the month of the destiny-ruling Moon-god (bcl purusse).2 In the age of Gemini the year began with Sivan and ended with Ijjar.3
1   P. 114.
2   This was the age of the immigration of the Semitic Babylonians.
3   Comp, with this pp. 42 f.
THE AGES
73
The Roman calendar begins the year with Janus, whose two faces represent the two halves of the moon; he therefore corresponds to the age of Gemini (lunar age, see fig. 23), and the Dioroscuros myth is also therefore established as the beginning of Roman history; see Winckler. This seems to be an artificial archaism reaching back possibly to the Etruscans. In the Roman calendar the 7-12 month is called Quinctilis till December; one sees therefore that by the great time-piece of the universe one is two stages slow.1
Age of Taurus
From about 3000 onwards the calendar did not agree with the actual position of the spring equinoctial point, and the reckoning would have to be changed and made to agree with Taurus, for in that sign the old spring point was behindhand. This happened in fact, and the reform was carried out by Sargon. The advancement of the spring point was used by Hammurabi to glorify his own reign as the beginning of a new epoch, and the “ exaltation of Marduk,” tutelary deity of Babylon, fell to him ; but we have no direct evidence, as in the case of the reform of the calendar under Nabonassar.
To correspond with the precession the beginning of the year must have been transferred into Ijjar, one month backwards, and the end of the year into Misan. For this we have no direct evidence, but when the King of Assyria is inaugurated in the second month Ijjar, instead of in Misan, which in the age of Gemini is the spring equinox point and the new year, it can only be explained by this phenomenon.2 That this new age, following that of Gemini, that is, “ the Lunar Age,'’ should bear the sun character was to be expected, because the Hammurabi dynasty originated in the City of the Sun, Sippar. And it is also in agreement in so far as Marduk is essentially the Sun-god.3 But the sun appears here, not as partner of the
1   For the meaning of the Roman names, comp. p. 42.
2   It is proved by HommePs Abh., 461 ff., that the eponymy of Sargon corresponds quite accurately to the age of Aries ; in the third year of his reign he was eponym, corresponding to the third age. The same reckoning is shown with Nebuchadnezzar. Sargon showed his friendliness to Babylon by this recognition of the calendar of Nabonassar. But at certain times in Assyria they did not adopt the advance ; perhaps in conscious opposition to Babylon they kept to the old calendar, like the Russians of the present day.
3   HommePs view, that sun-worship is genuine Babylonian and moon-worship West Semitic (Grundriss, p. 84), is untenable in the form brought forward. It is
74   
moon, but as divided into two and four, and the chief point is in every case that which marks the spring equinox, the victory of summer over the power of darkness. This point in the universe, as we saw p. 26 above, was originally given to Nebo; Nabu is called “ foreteller,” and as Morning Star he foretells the new day in the year and in the year of the universe cycle. But we know that his place was taken by Marduk, and thus the privileges of Babylon were founded upon occurrences in the astral universe.
Hammurabi boasts that the elevation of Marduk has fallen to him. Babylon was metropolis of the world because Marduk, symbolised by the bull, was represented in the age of the Sun as the victorious god of the year, who then also represented the entire astral universe.1
only correct in so far that the agricultural Babylonians preferably always fostered sun-worship (the sun bringing growth and harvest), whilst the nomadic Babylonians west of the Euphrates preferably fostered moon-worship, for the heat of the sun was their enemy, the light of the moon their friend. But the worship of sun and moon have always coexisted. Its astral character, as we have seen, makes the Ancient-Oriental religion a calendar religion, but every calendar which reckons by the seasons is necessarily founded upon the equalisation of sun and moon periods, and the relationship of astral to natural phenomena runs throughout them all. Certainly one or the other has been made most conspicuous for reasons possibly resting upon local cult, possibly caused by the interests of nomadic life on the one hand and of agricultural life on the other. The calendars may be founded upon a system which embraces the whole Eastern world, for Babylon is the land of the moon, and Egypt is the land of the sun, but neither in doctrine nor in popular mythology of the East can there ever be a question of the sun without its relationship to the moon coming into consideration, and vice versa. In the oldest theories known to us the moon had preference, later the sun. When, from the time of Sargon onwards, the sun took foremost rank, still lunar-worship also retained its rights, and was never superseded in its places of worship. For example, Hammurabi received the laws from the Sun-god, but he also cared for the wellbeing of the moon-city, Ur. The preference for the sun in later ages takes its rise in the spiritual supremacy of Babylon. In very late times the moon was again brought into prominence in the East, through the reformation of Mohammed, which was intentionally connected with the calendar and institutions of the moon- city of Haran. In this as in many other points the work of Mohammed shows itself to be the latest Ancient-Babylonian Renaissance ; see Winckler, ill. V.A. G., 1901, 237 ff. Upon G. Hiising’s opposing view, see Im Kanipfe urn den Alten Orient, i. 1, 14 f., 34 t.
1 In any case it was partly owing to chance; the calendar reform came to the help of the political and social situation, comp. Monotheistisc/ien Str'dmnngen innerhalb der babyl. Religion, p. 7 seq. Also the Jupiter character of Marduk comes into account. After Venus, Jupiter is the brightest planet. Did Jupiter,
THE AGES
7o
Age of Aries
In the eighth centurv B.C. the spring point retrograded into the sign of Aries. The otherwise insignificant King Nabonassar (Xabii-nat.sir, 747 to 734 B.C.) is brought into prominent notice through the astronomical recognition and establishment of this fact. Both the cuneiform “Babylonian Chronicle1'’ and the Canon of Ptolemy begin with him.1 for. from an astronomical point of view, he begins a new age, and we may conclude that he carried out a reform in calendar and time-reckoning which was acknowledged as authoritative in Babylon, and Syncellus says that according to the testimony of Alexander Polyhistor and Berossus certain historical records relating to his predecessors were destroyed by Nabonassar in order that chronology should begin only with him.2 The reform of the age of Aries did not come into full force in Babylon, for its astronomical beginning fell together with the gradual decline of Babylon. But the overwhelming power of Babylonian civilisation is still shown by the influence of the Marduk-Taurus age throughout centuries following. Till Xerxes Babylon remained mistress of
which passes through one sign of the zodiac yearly, roughly speaking, happen just at the decisive time to stand in Taurus? Marduk is pictured standing upon the bull ; was this symbol given him because of the new age and to establish him as chief of the gods? Or was the bull character of Merodach, tutelary deity of the town, decided by the change of residence of the Hammurabi dynasty from Sippar to Babylon ? We may compare with this the place taken by the sanctuary of Aries in the oasis of Ammon, when, in the age of Aries, the intellectual centre of Babylonia was transferred to Egypt. It is to be noted that the ideogram of the planet Jupiter means “Bull of the Sun,” and is explained as “Furrow of Heaven” (ploughed by the Bull of the Sun); see Hommel, Anfs. it. Abhand'., p. 356, and comp. p. 59 above. The tremendous influence exercised by the Marduk-Jupiter age over times reaching beyond its own limits may be recognised in the fact that Greeks as well as Romans elevated Zeus-Jupiter, though not a specially prominent deity to them, to be summits dens in place of their own tutelary town-god. Also the doctrine upon which the Mithra cult is founded indicates the age of Taurus as its origin.
1   K.B., ii. 274, 290.
2   Chronographia, 207 (comp. p. 61 above): avvayay&v Tas irpagis raiv r/pb aiiTov $a<xi\£a>v iftpauitreu, oirais air’ aiirov rj Ka.6apiQp.T}<rts yeur/Tai TS>V Xa\5attov fiacriXitav. In reforms in other ages the fables of the burning of the Books, in Persia under Alexander, and in China under Tshin-shi-hoang, 213 B.C., correspond to the breaking of the Tables. This motif may be taken into consideration also in regard to the burning of the library of Alexandria. It indicates the beginning of the era of Islam in Egypt under Omar ; see Winckler, Ex or. lux, ii. 2, 63.
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the East, and after the destruction of the temple of Marduk the care of the traditions passed over into Egypt. The oracle of Jupiter Ammon in the oasis of Ammon was held in peculiar veneration by the Greeks ; Alexander the Great consulted this oracle, and Jupiter Ammon is essentially identical with Marduk, but he is worshipped with the ram’s head corresponding to the new age. Evidence of the use of the Aries reckoning is to be found in the figure of the apvlov, which in Egyptian soothsaying about a new age appeared speaking in the time of King Bokchoris, according to Manetho.1 In the same sense Christ, as bringer of the new age, is described in the Apocalypse as apvlov.2
XIII. MOTIFS OF THE AGES AND ASTRAL MYTHOLOGICAL MOTIFS IN HISTORY
Oriental history unconnected with the ages of the universe is inconceivable; the stars ruled the changes of time. That the oldest Biblical writers are silent on the subject does not prove ignorance, and the Israelites also were certainly acquainted with the calculations in all times before Daniel, and we shall find traces, though the form of it varies.3
There is a great liking for indicating the ages by metals. Certain metals, like certain colours, etc., correspond to the planets. Silver belongs to the moon, gold to the sun, copper to Venus. The three ages, accordingly, in Babylonian reckon-
1   See Kroll, “ Vom Konig Bokchoris” in the Festgabefiir Biidinger, 1S9S.
2   See B.N.T., pp. 16 ff. Our calendar to the present day still names the
spring point in Aries, though it has long ago moved back in the course of the precession into the fish (Tisces), and it speaks of the tropics of Cancer and of Capricorn, though they should for long past be called tropics of Gemini and of Sagittarius. Possibly the “ fish ” symbol of early Christianity may be explained by Pisces. On the catacomb lamps there are two fish, one swallowing the other ; the explanation out of the letters of the word   : lyo-ovs Hpurros 6eov vios
aoortjp, is a later ingenious play. The Christians, influenced by the Oriental custom of characterising the ages according to the precession, may have symbolised the dawning era by the fish, to distinguish it from the heathen age of Aries. The zodiacal signs are of varied size, and the picture of the fish is lengthened out and begins close to the ram. In the Talmud the Messiah is called pa:, who will bring a new law. That is certainly a play of words on min, “fish.” A Jewish commentary on Daniel (fourteenth century) expects the Messiah in the sign of Pisces.
3   For further detail, see in section “ Biblical Ages.”
MOTIFS OF THE AGES
/1
ing, must be the silver, the gold, and the copper age. Instead of this, however, in later times, for various reasons, the reckoning was used which gave the first rank to the sun—gold, silver, and copper ages.1 As we have seen, the sun in divine operations equals Saturn, therefore the Golden Age is also the age of Saturn.2 That is the reckoning used in Daniel and in the West bv Hesiod. There has been added to the three past ages the present, the Iron age. Whether this iron age corresponds to the astral system, or is only a practical addition arising out of the conflicts of the present, may be left undecided. In any case, the order suggests the pessimistic thought, that the times become worse, and the world yearns for the return of the Golden Age.3
The change in the actual ages is represented in certain myths which mirror the system of the universe.4 These myths are for the Ancient-Oriental historian what metrics and language are for the poet, and light and shade or colour for the painter. Tire characteristic of the beginning of the history of every age is specially that the beginning person bears the features of the astral god who corresponds to the beginning of the age.5
Examples.—The stories of the birth of Sargon I. with tire motif of secret birth, exposure, and deliverance ; and see the stories of the infancy of Moses (Exod. ii. 2), to which a host of parallels from Babylonian texts and from all over the world may be found. The Indian legends of Buddha and Krishna, the Persian Zoroaster, the Chinese Fohi, begin in the same way. The same motifs are shown in Egyptian stories in the mythology of the birth stories of the king’s son (see Ernran, Agyptische Religion, p. 40, where they are characterised as "crazy”). It is the Marduk-Osiris legend, corresponding to the Taurus age, which is known to us in this form only at present, as the myth of the founder of a dynasty, and
1   It corresponds to the Egyptian view through which the philosophia orientalis passed to the West.
2   Winckler, F., iii. 1S7 set/., holds that according to the Babylonian order an age of Nebo followed that of Marduk. But the division in two parts, Nebo-Marduk (winter and summer), corresponds in division in quarters to beginning with Nergal-Saturn.
“ Beginning with the sun corresponds to the order of the week, which begins with Sunday ; beginning with Saturn to the order (Jewish) starting with Saturday.
4   Compare with this the conclusions drawn by Winckler in Ex oriente lux, i.
1, p. 33 et seq., from which, as may be seen from the deductions given above, I differ in some points.   5 H. Winckler, Gesch. Isr., ii. 10.
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not yet in the Marduk myths themselves, though they doubtless existed. The Romulus legend adds the motif of the Twin (Gemini) age, an archaism which we met with on p. 73, as also in the Persian Cyrus-Cambyses legend and the Athenian legend of the expulsion of the tyrants. H. Winckler explains from the motif of this oldest of the ages the origin of all historical legends, which show on the one side the moon form, and on the other a Dioroscuros legend (see p. 73). The main stream of the emigration seems to occur in the Taurus age. We meet with the motif of the Aries age in Alexander, who had himself painted by Apelles as Jupiter, and who consulted the oracle of the ram-headed Ammon-Jupiter in the oasis of Jupiter-Ammon (see p. 76). In the Apocalypse the symbolising of the victorious Christ as the Arnion corresponds to the age of Aries (see p. 76). Following another motif, Sennacherib, who desired to open a new epoch by the destruction of Babylon, had himself represented as a new Adam (Adapa abkallu = Marduk, see Chap. IV.). Sargon says that 350 kings reigned before him, and with him begins a new lunar age. Babylonian and Assyrian rulers were specially fond of having the tablet inscriptions of their reigns adorned with the motifs of the age of Deliverance (Assurnasirpal, Mardukbaladan II., Assurbanipal, and also Cyrus; see B.N.T., pp. 27 ff.). Since the nabi (prophet) was “foreteller,” that is, “bringer” of the new age (see p. 90), his history also was endowed with the motif of the new age, as we find in the stories of Elijah and Elisha. It is the same with the figures of that “Deliverer” who comes to the rescue in any trouble, and thus is the type of the great expected deliverer (in the Biblical sphere : Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, the Judges, David, and others).
The myth shows itself in word motif, and play upon words and motifs, either interwoven with the historical material or joined on to the unessential features of the story, especially in the application of artificial names and pseudonyms. Certain mythological presentments are commonly used as the typical expression for certain events. The victory of a hero appears as victory over the dragon ; crossing the sea or river in a dangerous crisis is the “ dismemberment of the dragon v> motif. Instead of the combat with the dragon we find the Slaughter of Five, (Epagomena as representative of the end of winter time), killing of the tyrant (Orion) or the giant,1 with the motif of drunkenness in harvest time or at sheep-shearing, battle of the Titans, slaughter of the seventy sons in extermination of a race, and so on.
1   Comp. p. 93.
MOTIFS OF THE AGES
79
The same thing; may be said of this mythological web as of the poems : “The true myth poem, like creative nature, is never arbitrary, there is an appointed place even for things seemingly introduced only for ornament.'” The historical legends of the time of Alexander, of the Persians, and of old Roman history bear the same marks ; and particularly the history of Mohammed and his followers. In Western Europe we have the histories of King Arthur and the Frankish stories of Charlemagne.
The assertion that this mythologic historical form of story plays its part also in Bible history has now stirred up considerable excitement.1 Winckler's Gesehichte Israels, ii., has a tendency to point out Bible history as a specially characteristic example of the mythological form of presentment. In this Winckler goes too far. We do not believe, for instance, that the triad (moon and sun in the manifestation of the two halves, Marduk and Nebo) is systematically used—Saul-moon, David- Marduk, Solomon, Nebo: it should only be taken as the motif in individual cases. But there is no doubt that the fabulous embellishment of later times is worked in systematically. In any case we are dealing with an epoch-making discovery, which is of utmost importance in understanding the Old Testament inode of speaking. It is therefore with fullest consideration that in the controversial treatise, Im Kampf um Babel and Bibel,2 we have spoken in behalf of the “ mythological web; and it will be the aim of this book also to show how the Ancient-Babylonian ideas and myths of the universe have left their traces in the Old Testament. Since the appearance of the first edition of this book the existence of this mythological garb of Old Testament narration has gained such wide- spread recognition that its admission to the ranks of Biblical exegesis amongst experts is now assured. A most important
1   Tammuz motifs in the history of Joseph ; Tammuz, or Marduk-Nebo motifs in the history of Moses. Marduk motifs in Joshua, David, etc. Examples of typical motifs : Dragon combat in the exodus from Egypt ; dismemberment of the dragon in the passage through the sea and in the passing over Jordan (see Exod. xiv., Joshua iii.) ; killing of the seventy sons of Ahab, 2 Kings x. 6 seq. (comp. C. Niebuhr, O.L.Z., 1S97, 380 seq.) ; conquest of the five kings (Gen. xiv., Joshua x. seq., Numb. xxxi.).
2   Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs, 4th ed., 1903,
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question is, then:   In tracing the mythological allusions,
how much of historical circumstance is to be left ? No general rules can be laid down, and the decision must be made in each individual case.
I would propose the following leading propositions for discussion. So far as concerns the mythological connection, they lie at the root of the deductions of this book :—
1.   Mythological motifs, which adhere to the narrative, prove nothing against the historical probability of the whole fact. Sargon I. was held by Assyriologists to be a mythical person, because the stories of the secret birth, exposure in a basket, and discovery by Ishtar were told of him. Now we possess transcripts of annals of his and of his son Naramsin showing them to be powerful rulers. Minos till latety was taken to be unhistorical on account of the mythological character of the stories handed down about him; but in the latest discoveries of Cretan civilisation there are at least traces of a person very like Minos. Midas of Phrygia, in spite of the asses1 ears, the mythical lust for gold, and the Gordian knot, is established by Assyrian inscriptions as a historical personality. In view of these considerations it seems not impossible to find historic foundation even for such a figure as Samson, whose story can only be taken as pure mythology, and whose very name has been used as proof of his mythical character. From this point of view Winckler also takes some historic contents to be possible in the stories of the fathers which are held bv the “ critical-historical” school to be quite without foundation in history.
Winckler, in his Geschichte Israels, has not altogether avoided the obvious sophism which with the establishment of mvtho- logical features eliminates the historical fact, but in the closing chapter, in a recapitulation of the deductions, he expressly agrees that a correct knowledge of these forms of expression and of the conceptions of the ages of antiquity may be united with the most perfect faith in regard to the facts related just as well as with the most far-reaching scepticism.
2.   A distinction is to be made between the various parts of the Old Testament. The primitive tales of the Bible must be
MOTIFS OF THE AGES
81
judged differently to the legends of the fathers and the stories of the time before the kings, and these again differently to the stories of the time of the kings lying in full light of history.
The primitive tales are an introduction to the history and laws of the Israelites, which were edited, that is, collected, in later revision. In the light of the knowledge of their time they take their material of the creation and development of the world from the Ancient-Oriental teaching (comp, herewith Chap. IV.). They ai’e not fables nor diluted myths,1 but a view of life made use of as religion. The System, the outlines of which they kept in the background as far as possible, was for them a means for conveyance of creative religious ideas. How far it may have to do, for example, in the story of the Flood, with a tradition of actual facts cannot be decided with our present means for criticism.
The stories of the Patriarchs must be tested anew as to their historical credibility. It is not possible that they present an ideal story taken from former times, for the milieu has proved itself to be historic down to the minutest detail, and the actors also are histo

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Re: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST (sumer) I
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ric. Even the existence of documentary sources for the primitive time of Israel does not seem to us out of the question. The historical authenticity of isolated features can likewise not be established by means of literary criticism. In any case, the historical truth of a relation in the mind of the reporter should not be denied because some legend known to be the dress of a cosmic occurrence is interwoven through it: as, for example, Jacob’s dream, Jacob’s conflict at the ford of Jabbok, and so on. Whether they gave history a slight turn to favour the mythological motif, or whether in other cases the motif lies in an embellishing side issue, or in giving prominence to a play upon words, or in accentuation of some in itself incidental fact, or in the invention of significant names and so on, are questions which in future cannot be ignored by students of the Old Testament.
1   Only faint mythological agreement can be laid down as a fact, as for example in tohti and bohu. Mythology is the popularising and substantiating of the teaching, and difficult ideas were involuntarily replaced by their mythological pictures and symbols in the Biblical history of the primitive ages also. The same phenomenon is shown by every religious doctrine.
VOL. I.
6
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The mythological motifs form only an artificial accessory part in the true historical boobs.1 The authors of the books known to us, who used extracts only from annals now probably lost, understood the motifs and improved them as a means for conveying scientific ideas,2 and the mythological embellishments and added mythological anecdotes are easily recognisable.
Many histories in which conservative exegetes say we must acknowledge traces of the poetic fable may be thus explained. We may call to mind the story of the giant Goliath,3 the statements about David’s warriors (2 Sam. xxi. 15 ff.; comp. 1 Chron. xxi. (xx.) 1 ff.), the embroideries of the stories about Nabal and Abigail (1 Sam. xxv.) and Amnon and Tamar (2 Sam. xiii.), the burning of Joab’s field in the story of Absalom (2 Sam. xiv. 80 ff.), and the embellishment of the threefold combat of Gibeon (2 Sam. ii. 12 ff.).
1   The special problem of the sources drawn from in the time of Joshua and Judges will be treated in another place.
2   Examples in Winckler, Gesch. Isr., ii. 31, 218, comp. 277. The writers are only partially skilled in the mythological manner. To some it is agreeable, others have suppressed it, others favoured it. The pseudographists turn it into frank opposition to some of the writers of the Canons who use the mythological style delicately and sensitively. We shall give examples later.
3   P. 93, n. 4.
CHAPTER II
BABYLONIAN RELIGION
I. THE MYSTERIES
THE Ancient-Oriental doctrine taught the aim and end of the created universe, and represented divine knowledge; it was therefore identical with “ wisdom ” or science and could not become common property any more than can the science of our own day. The doctrine was, however, popularised and taught to the people by mythology (in Greek times the oriental myths were called lepos Aoyo?) and dramatic festival plays, about which we have as yet very little evidence from Babylonia. The priestly doctrine was transmitted to initiates by an occult discipline and by the Mysteries (nisirtu). We learn that Enmeduranki, one of the seven primeval kings, received the secret of Anu [of Bel and Ea], the tablet of the gods, the tablet of omens (?), the mystery of heaven [and earth] and taught them to his son. It is said further that the sage, the wise one (mudft), guarded the mysteries of the great gods, and made his son swear by tablet and stylus to do the same. This “ tablet of the secrets of heaven and earth,” like the books of primeval ages,” represented in fable, according to Berossus, the celestial book of revelation. Also in other places there is mention of tradition of a secret doctrine. At the end of the epic Enuma elish, which glorifies Marduk as Dragon-slayer, Creator of Worlds, and Lord of Fate, it is said of the fifty names of honour in which the circle of the universe is secreted: “ They shall be guarded, and the ‘ First1 shall teach them, the wise and the learned shall ponder them together, the father shall transmit and teach them to his son.” Also the tablet
83
84
BABYLONIAN RELIGION
inscriptions in the library of Assurbanipal differentiate between the learned and the unlearned (for example, V. R. 64): 41 The wise shall show it to the wise: the unlearned shall not see it.”1 Nebuchadnezzar says the wise (Miulanu) may take note of his inscriptions (mostly treating of temple-building).2
From the nature of things we cannot expect to find monumental evidence of Babylonian occult science. But from analogy with later mystery cults which correspond to the Ancient- Oriental teaching (especially the mysteries of Isis and Attis and Mithra), and from the form of the Ancient-Oriental doctrine itself, we may draw the conclusion that the Mysteries dealt with three points:—
1.   The observation and understanding of nature, leading to the knowledge that the phenomena of the starry heavens and of physical nature are a revelation of one centralised Divine Power.
2.   Establishment of the knowledge that death proceeds from life, and life from death, i.e. the secret of immortality.3
3.   The secret of fellowship with the Divinity. This idea has in later times been greatly enlarged under non-Oriental influence, and has been especially connected with the desire for particular privileges in the other world (journey to heaven of the soul; physical and ethical mysteries combined). But in my opinion, that traces of it exist in Babylon also is shown by
(a)   ascent of the planet towers being held as well pleasing to
God, see p. 57 ;
(b)   the mystic connection of the solemnities in honour of the
dead with the celebration of the death and resurrection of the god of the year, as shown in the worship of Tammuz.
1   In the Mosaic records the seventy elders appear as holding a secret tradition. Jesus spoke of those who “ have the keys of knowledge,” and the chief points of the Christian doctrine also (creed and sacrament) were treated as mysteries to the heathen. In the Epistles to the Ephesians and the Colossians the Christian teaching is dealt with as fivorriptov, the <pav7ipa><ris of which is laid upon St Paul for all the world.
2   The “ tradition of the wise men of Babylon” occupied Mani twelve years, according to the legend, after he had been commanded by the angel El taum (Companion of God) to separate himself from his surroundings ; see Bischoff, Im Reiche der Gnosis, p. 53. Also in the Yasna of the Avesta, the “wise” is distinguished from the “ ignorant.”
3   For detail on points I and 2, see Monotheist. Stromungen, pp. 10 ff.
LATENT MONOTHEISM AND DIVINE TRIADS 85
II. LATENT MONOTHEISM AND DIVINE TRIADS
1,1 As sun and moon, heaven, earth, and sea are the same to all mankind, but are called by different names by different peoples, so there are various names and forms of adoration by which various nations worship that one only Being who governs all things.” Thus Plutarch, to whom we owe much information about the ancient mysteries,1 formulates the unity of the old religions, which appear more and more to us also to be 4* dialects of one and the same language of the Spirit.”
In fact, the phenomena in the world of the 44 eternal stars” and in the changes of physical nature were not 44 gods” in the polytheistic sense to the initiated, but were interpreters of the one Divine Power, making itself known in many ways. Only in the popular religion are the stars themselves gods.2 The teaching in each temple included the complete doctrine, and proves that the divinity was revealed in each special place in local form and manner according to the correspondence of the temple in question with the sacred district in heaven. The local god appears in each particular district as an abstract of the complete Divine Power, the doctrine taught in his special temple showing him as chief benefactor, and the remainder of the gods appearing as miracle-working saints ; 44 As the starry host surrounds the sun, so they busy themselves round about the Lord of the Universe,” this holds good, mutatis mutandis, of the System in every local cult, and in the political concentrations, which were always at the same time religious concentrations of every state and kingdom of the Ancient-East. Thus the doctrine of the 44 initiates” says of a place of moon-worship : “From 1st to 5th day the moon is called Anu, from 6th to J 10th day Ea, and from 11th to 15th day Bel.”3
In the temple of Marduk, in Babylon, they taught:
44 When the star of Marduk (the planet Jupiter) rises, it is Nebo; when it stands (1£?) a double-hour high, it is Marduk ; when it culminates, it is Nibiru.”4
1   He was an officer of the Delphic priesthood and Dionysos Mystic.
2   Comp. Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier, ii. 714: “The idols were not gods, but representatives of the invisible deities, approached through them.”
3   III. R. 55, No. 3.   4 III. R. 54, No. 5. On Nibiru, see pp. 21 seq.
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BABYLONIAN RELIGION
In the same way the text, perhaps only transmitted from the Babylonian times and which has been so much argued about, may be explained thus :1
JYinib:   Marduk as god of strength.
Nergal:   Marduk as god of battle.
Bel:   Marduk as ruler and governor.
Nabn :   Marduk as god of commerce (?).
Sin :   Marduk as illuminator of the night.
Shamash: Marduk as god of justice.
Addu (Adad-Ratnman): Marduk as god of rain.
From the doctrine of the zodiac as the book of revelation of the Divine Will, esoteric religion further developed a trinitarian view of the Divinity. Sun, moon, and Venus are the regents of the zodiac. They form a triad, which in its combination, as does each in particular, shows the complete essence of the cosmic deity, as it does the various phenomena of the cycle. This triad proceeds from itself, returns into itself, and again rises. The four remaining planets correspond to the quarterly phases of these three regents and represent equally the universe with the said phenomena (see pp. 14 ff.). According to the religious relationship of the temple in question, one or the other would always predominate in the worship to which the teaching of the calendar refers. The question always arises whether the deity at a certain place and at a certain time shows the characteristics of sun, moon, or Venus-Ishtar;2 but in every case the divinity represents also the complete cycle, which repeats its phenomena in every microcosmos of physical nature.
The triad is connected with the System by the three being held to be children (two of them being wedded brother and sister, comp. p. 14 seq.)z of Anu, “Father of the Gods,” or of Bel, “ Lord of the Zodiac.”
1   81-11-3, HI. (Brit. Mus., i.e. No. 3 of the texts acquired, that is, registered on 3rd Nov. 1SS1).
2   Or also the character of Marduk in combination with Nebo, or of Ninib and Nergal, or of Tammuz in so far as he represents the life and death of vegetation in the cycle. Compare now also Beitr, zur Altertumskunde, iv. 10 ff., by Landau, and see Winckler, F., iii. 274 ff.
3   A conclusion to be drawn from the Tammuz myths ; Ishtar is then always lunar goddess, but the following shows that she may also bear solar character, and in that case her partner (brother) is lunar divinity.
LATENT MONOTHEISM AND DIVINE TRIADS 87
Anii
Sin   Shamash   Ishtar
wedded brother and sister Bel
Sin   Shamash   Ishtar
the relation of the three to each other here is:
Sin
Shamash (male) and Ishtar or Sin
Attar and Shamash (feminine)1 or
Shamash
Sin and Ishtar (with solar character)
Shamash
Attar and (feminine) moon Hecate, Selene, etc.
The relation of wedded brother and sister, or (what is the same thing) the relation of the son to the wife-mother, is shown most plainly in the Tamnmz-Ate-Dusares myths and the corresponding mythological stories of love bringing destruction, or of the descent into the Underworld and the deliverance. In these cases the deliverer bears lunar character and the rescued is solar, or vice versa, or one of the figures represents the circle of life, as is shown pp. 35 ft'.
Corresponding to the solar cycle with its two or four starting positions we find in the mythological teaching:
1.   A lunar cycle in four phases:
(«) The horned new moon (sickle), who is to conquer the power of darkness—born of Ishtar;
(b)   The full moon—wedding with Ishtar;
(c)   The dying moon—to whose rescue Ishtar descends
into the Underworld.
1   It is so in the ancient Arabian religions. In the mysteries of the Minseans (in the texts, Gl. 232) the women led the woman representing Shamash to Attar (not a human sacrifice, as H. Grimme, O.L.Z., 1906, No. 2, takes it). In the worship of Petra, Attar = Dusares, the black stone (TTapdsvos x“«£a)> according to Epiphanius, see M. V.A.G., 1901, 276 ff., is the wife-mother.
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BABYLONIAN RELIGION
2.   A solar-lunar cycle :
(«) The victorious sun of the equinox is borne from out the Underworld (winter, water region), therefore is freed from the power of Tiamat;
 
FIG. 24.—The Carthaginian Queen of Heaven (Tanit), bearing sun and moon in her hands.
(b) The sun celebrates marriage with the full moon of the solstice, and then dies (conquered by the hostile beast of the winter half).
I he mystery of the cosmos, based upon the teaching
LATENT MONOTHEISM AND DIVINE TRIADS 89
of the emanations, corresponds to the mystery of the cycle.
We find in cosmogony the principle that a new emanation of the Divine revelation always corresponds to a new age. Fig. 25 illustrates Osiris who brings the new world1 proceeding from the triad Hathor, moon and sun (Hathor bears lunar horns with the sur between them upon her head). Osiris is identical with Marduk.2 Marduk appears as an emanation of Ea,3 who is ilu amelu, “Divine-man'’'’
(see p. 106). As such he is abkallu, “Bearer of wisdom,” and identical with the first man Adapa, rser ameluti (“ Seed of the race of man”), who likewise is ahkallu (see Chap. IV.) and corresponds to the new Adapa in the new
age. Marduk is mediator between God and man (see pp. 106 ff.), and that is the doctrine of Eridu, which was transferred to
 
FIG. 25.—Hathor-Isis with sun and moon on head, protecting Osiris. Berlin, 13J7S.
1   By victory over the dragon, as the doctrine of Amon teaches. We should expect to find the creation of the new world taking place by union with the mother, as a variation ; see p. 7. The child of the sun, Tammuz-Osiris, becomes the beloved, that is, the husband of the Queen of Heaven and Mother-goddess. Figs. 26 and 27 represent the combat with Kingu and Tiamat, and the triad moon, sun, and Ishtar is indicated by crescent moon, tree of life (comp. Selene and Helios in Paradise, p. 24), and vagina ; thus in fig. 57, p. 151.
a As such he bears solar character, on the other hand he is also lunar revelation ; see p. 36, and note the example, p. S6, n. 3.
3   The relation of Marduk to Ishtar, which corresponds to that of Osiris-Isis, is not yet proved by documentary evidence, but the legends relating to Marduk of the king’s appointment to office show that it exists; see Ex., ii. 1 seq.
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BABYLONIAN RELIGION
Marduk of Babylon. In Babylon-Borsippa before the time of its supremacy another doctrine was paramount which recognised Nabti-Nebo as herald of the new age and as mediator between God and man (comp. p. 39).1
 

 
FIG. 26.—Combat of the three great stars, see p. 89, n. 1, FIG. 27.—From Layard, against Kingu and Tiamat or corresponding powers.   Culte de Mithra.
From a cast. Sea] cylinder in Brit. Museum.
Upon the worship of the "highest God” in the cosmos, and further upon the monarchical polytheism of the popular religion and upon the theology of the Babylonian penitential psalms, see Monotheistischen Slrbwungen innerhalb der babylonischen Religion, Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs, 1904.
The teaching was convej’ed to the people by means of the calendar festivals, of which we have but little evidence at present from Babylonia, and by the mythology.
1   This Babylonian doctrine of mediation is important for the comprehension of the several Logos doctrines ; compare the interpretation of Hommel in G.G.G., 115, and Winckler, F., iii. 298 ff. Naturally a more profound meaning is given to the idea in the Bible. The personified Logos is the revealer of God, exactly in the sense of Nabfi, the prophet or foreteller (of the new age, the deliverance). Gen. i. presents the idea in the “ Word” which creates light (comp. John i. 1 seq.: “ In the beginning was the Logos, in him was Life, and the Life was the light of men”). Moses was a Nebo or prophet to the Israelitish religion (“ Nebo” as mountain of death is treated of later); comp. Deut. xviii. 15 : “A nebi like unto me,” etc. I think it not unlikely that in the Babylonian Samaria, for example, such reference was still current (comp. John iv. 14 :   " Sir, I see that thou art irpo^-fjTris ” (nebi),
without article). The ancient Babylonian idea corresponds to Nebo as deliverer. We have here therefore an archaism, such as was a very favourite thing in the time of the Chaldean rulers (see p. 137). In the reon of the primeval world Mummu, son of Apsu and Tiamat, who creates the new world with Tiamat, corresponds to the son of Ea. We meet with him as early as in Damascius, who explains MIKD/US as wTjTbr K6O-/J.OS, the intelligible world ; also in the name of the Babylonian school of science, bit Mummu, p. 7, and we shall find him again in the name given to Ea, Mummu ban kala, “ the Former of all.”
THE CALENDAR FESTIVALS
91
III. THE CALENDAR FESTIVALS
New year was a spring festival in the Babylonian age. It was celebrated in the first days of the month Nisan, at the time of the spring equinox. In the pre-Babylonian age, for example, as festival of cultivation in the Gudea age, it was in autumn (feast of Nebo). In Babylonian histories of the Flood the new year already appears as festival of the new cycle.
The hero of the feast (the Babylonian Zagmuk, that is, rcsh shatti, beginning of the year or Akitu feast) is Marduk, “ Son of the Sunv in the Babylonian age. He *] has conquered winter, which appears as the water-dragon (corresponding to the victory over Kingu, that is, Tiamat) ) in the beginning of the then present icon. Therefore the festival falls at the equinox (.shithulu). The god celebrates his “ procession ” on a wheeled ship (car naval) and in the dwellings of Fate he pronounces his decisions for the new year. The ruling over Fate appears in the myth as a reward for the battle and victory over the power of darkness.1 The new year festival is closely connected with the myth of creation.
There is evidence from Assyrian times2 of the dramatic celebra- *1 tion of the victory over winter. Kingu (comp. fig. 26, p. 90), { represented by a sheep, was burnt upon a chafing-dish, and during j the performance the “bard” recited, and expounded the actions which represented the driving away (burning) of winter, by features of the myth of creation. The king played the part of Marduk (comp. p. 59).
The Osiris games in Egypt had the same meaning; see B.N.T.,
19 Gayet found in a woman’s grave at Antinoe in Upper Egypt a marionette theatre shaped like a canoe made of wood and sheet copper upon which were represented scenes from the life of Osiris.
We find further detail about such festival plays in the book by
1   Compare now Zimmern, “ Zum babylonischen Neujahrsfest,” Kgl. Sacks. Ges. der ll'issenschaften, vol. viii., meeting of 12th December 1903 ; printed 1906.
2   K. 3476 = C.T. xv. 44 and 43 ; see Monotheist. Stromuugen, p. 24, according to H. Zimmern’s communication, and now Zimmern, loc. cit. The text gives a significant example of our view, according to which the worship was based upon the myth and the myth upon the teaching.
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BABYLONIAN RELIGION
Erman, Die agyptische Religion,1 and in the publication by Schafer, Die Mysterieu des Osiris in Abydos. From a stone in the Berlin Royal collection 2 we learn that a noble treasurer sent to Abydos by King Sesostris III. took part as priest in the feasts of Osiris as “ Lord of the Mysteries ” :
“ I arranged the procession of Wep-w'amet3 when he went out to help his father (Osiris).
I beat back those who pressed against the barge of Neschemet, and overthrew the enemies of Osiris.
I arranged the f great procession/4 and followed close upon the footsteps of the god.
1 started the vessel of the god and Toth .... the journey.
1 supplied the barge named f He (Osiris) appears in truth ’ of the lord of Abydos with a cabin, and fitted it out with its beautiful decorations, so that he might resort to the states of Peker.
I conducted the god on his way to his grave in Peker.
I revenged Wenen-nofru (Osiris) in that day of the great combat and overthrew' all his enemies in the water of Nedit.
I placed him in the vessel (yvrt). It bore his beauty.
I made glad the hearts of the dwellers in the East and brought joy to the dwellers in the West w'hen they beheld the beauty of the barge of Neschemet. They landed in Abydos and brought Osiris, chief of the inhabitants of the West, Lord of Abydos, to his palace.”
King Rameses IV. kindled a light at the grave of Osiris in Abydos on the day when they embalmed his mummy. Thus he prevented Set from stealing his members.5 He established his son Horus as his heir. And at the feast of Horus in Abydos the same king spat out his eye after it had been stolen by his vanquisher. He gave him the throne of his father and his inheritance in the land. He established his word in the day of judgment. He permitted him to traverse Egypt and the Red Land as representative of Har-achte. At another festival which w'as originally celebrated in Memphis, the feast of the erection of the Pillar of
1   Erman, loc. at, repeatedly remarks about the texts : “ The meaning of them escapes us.” The key to them lies in the astral doctrine; see essay “Deralte Orient und die agyptische Religion ” in IViss. Beilage znm Lpzg. Ztg., 1905, n. 91. They deal with the contest between Upper and Underworld (battle of the Titans), and with the death, resurrection, and glorification of Osiris, who brings the new age, and who lives incarnate in the king.
2   Schafer in Setbe’s Untersuchungen, iv. 2, Lpz., 1904.
3   Represented as a jackal with a snake coiled at his feet.
4   Compare the “procession” at the feast of Marduk, p. 91. Equinox or solstice ; at the summer solstice (that is, at the autumn equinox) Osiris dies, and then follows the dirge, described by Herodotus, ii. 61. The winter solstice (that is, the spring equinox) is a jubilee ; the end of the text informs us of this.
5   Motif of dismemberment; see B.N.T., p. 121.
THE CALENDAR FESTIVALS
93
Osiris,, a pillar was raised up by ropes till it stood upright; that typified Osiris -whom they raised so, after having represented his burial the previous day.1 All sorts of mimicry took their rise out of this.2 Part of the crowd danced and sprang; others fell upon each other and one cried, “ I have caught Horu.s ” ; others beat themselves with sticks and fists : they thus represented people of the two cities Pe and Dep, from which Buto, the old chief town, grew. And finally, four herds of oxen and asses were driven four times round the town. This feast was in later times joined on to another, the celebrated feast of Set, which had reference to the accession of the earthly monarch and to his jubilee, which was celebrated for the first time thirty years after his nomination as heir to the throne, and then was repeated every three years. In the material given by Erman we also find evidence in other places that the Egyptian theology found expression in calendar festivals, and in this form is identical with the “ Babylonian ” doctrine. Erman says, p. 51 :
“There were, in fact, one or more chief festivals celebrated on certain days on which special events of the myths were supposed to have happened, such as the birth, or some great victory of the god, and they joined with these also the beginning of the different seasons,3 4 such as New Year’s day, or the first day of the month.” And of this the explanation is clear. The myth is the popular teaching which mirrors the gods' celestial actions. New Year’s day is that upon which the god of the year always repeats his victory. The first day of a month has the same signification in regard to the lunar course ; it is Hilal (see pp. 35 ff.).
The corresponding celebrations of death and victory in the cults of Tannnuz, Attis, and Baldur will be spoken of pp. 9* ff. and pp. 125 ff.
The myths of victory over the five, or over the giants, in which intentional stress is laid upon the number 51,1 show that in the myths and games they looked upon the Epagomenae (equalisation of 360 and 36.51 days) as representing the evil powers of
1   Crucifixion of Osiris and resurrection festival. Compare the crucifixion of Attis in Julius Firmicus.
2   For the festivals, comp. Herodotus, ii. 59 seq. (and Wiedemann’s commentaries on it). Herodotus says the return of “Ares” (very likely Horus) from strange lands is represented there ; with his servants he fights his way to his mother, desiring to be united with her. This incest is the motif of renewal (p. 7), and motif of spring in the calendar festivals. The scenes of scourging therefore in this instance also typify the expulsion of winter.
3   Memorial stone of I-cher-nofret, line 14 (Schafer).
4   For example, the motifs in the stories of Goliath, who defied Israel forty days (Pleiades number), 1 Sam. xvii., and who was sixteen ells and one hand high (instead of five and a quarter as may be gathered from the variation in 1 Chr. xii. (11), 23), and the stories in the legends of Alexander of the giant Indian king who was over five ells high. Further examples are in Ex or. lux, ii. 2, p. 62, n. 41.

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Re: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST (sumer) I
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BABYLONIAN RELIGION
winter ;1 the Orion motif in the Expulsion of the Tyrants shows the same idea in connection with the rising and setting of Orion (comp, p. 42, n. 1, ii.). But the Pleiades in particular represented the power of winter. The "forty days” which precede the rising of the Pleiades in Taurus is the time of equinoctial gales (see pp. 68, 110). The priestesses of the temple of Nebo solemnly passing over to the temple of Marduk at the beginning of summer, and the reverse at the beginning of winter, expressed pantomimically in the festival the change of the two halves of the year (comp. p. 29).
In so far as concerns the death and resurrection of the god of the year, New Year’s festival is the feast of the Resurrection. It is therefore also called the feast of the Resurrection {tabu) of Marduk. It then forms the contrast to the death feast of the dying god of the year. Perhaps the designation of Marduk, u He who overthrows the Lofty House of the Shadow of Death,11 is in agreement with this.2
The conqueror of the power of winter received as reward the guidance of the world’s destiny, and therefore the spring- festival of New Year was also the festival of Destiny,3 and Marduk was mushim shimate. At the feast of the New Year the gods passed through Babylon and assembled in the Hall of Destiny (Duazag in the Ubshugina), and Nebo, originally Lord of Destiny, became in the Babylonian age the scribe, and there they fixed the decrees of fate. The corresponding representative action of the king, who appeared in the temple of Marduk on New Year’s day “to grasp the hands of Marduk,” is attested by the Assyrian puru ahrur, “ I cast the lot ” (?), where in the act of redemption the limn is certainly meant.4 A chief feature
1   Comp. p. 42, n. I, ii., and p. 65. In Egypt there is evidence on the Pyramids of Pepi II. : "When the gods were born on the fifth Epagomene” ; comp. p. 31, n. 3. The Sakaen festival (Berossus in Athenseus, Fragm. hist. gr., ii. 495) is the Tammuz festival of the solstice, not the spring New Year’s festival. It lasted five days, therefore was Epagomene festival. The (wyavys (Zoganes) is Lord of Misrule.
2   Sallutum K. 3351 (B.A., V. 330).
3   There is a trace of this retained in the fateful dreams of Twelfth-night. 12 is Epagomenen, like 5, when it is a question of equalisation of 354 and 366. The feast of the New Year is characterised by drinking, and the origin is the drinking bout of the gods after the victory over Tiamat, as it is described in the epic Enuma elish. Whether it is a question here of "intoxication” (eg(l) is not certain.
4   Origin of the Purim feast; see Peiser, K.B. iv. 106, and comp. Winckler, F.y ii. 334 f., and Zimmern, K.A. T.y 3rd ed., 514 ff.
THE CALENDAR FESTIVALS
95
of the feast is the procession of Marduk. Along the processional street, decorated on both sides by figures of animals in brick reliefs (see figs. 28 and 58), the sacred ship was carried
 
FlO. 23.—Bull {rSmu) in brick relief. From the intrados of the Ishtar Gate in Babylon.
(upon wheels) in solemn procession. The following hymn relates to this:1
Arise, set forth, O Bel, the king awaits thee ; arise, set forth, our Belit, the king awaits thee.
Bel of Babylon sets forth, the peoples bow before him ; Tsarpanit sets forth, sweet herbs are kindled ;
Tashmet sets forth, incense basins full of cypress are kindled. Side by side with Ishtar of Babel (Tsarpanit),
Upon flutes play the priests, the assinu and the kvgaru.
Yea, they play.
And the following song relates to the returning procession : -
O Lord, at thine entrance to the house, thy house [rejoices] [over thee]; honoured Lord Marduk, . . .
Rest, Lord, rest, Lord, thy house [rejoices over theel;
Rest, Lord of Babylon, thy house [rejoices over thee].
Finally the festival of Marduk was considered as a ice tiding
1   According to Zimmern, A.O., vii. 3, 9, K 9S76 (Bezold, Cat., iii. 1046).
2   lb., p. 10; Weissbach, Miszellen, No. 13.
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feast.1 It is said in one place of this festival: this rota liaxlashshhtu, “ He hasted to the bridal.” 2 As far back as the time of Gudea New Year’s feast was the weddino1 feast of
O
the god Ningirsu with Bau.3 Nothing is known of the wedding of Marduk with Tsarpanitu.4
The celebration of the death of the god of the year, the funeral feast of dying nature, corresponds to the feast of the Resurrection of Marduk. Up to the present it is not proved that such a funeral feast preceded that of new year in Babylon, unless one takes the record of Herodotus of the “ Grave of Bel,” which bears the same resemblance to it as the “Grave of Osiris,”5 and the green-bedecked grave of Malkat-Ishtar in Sippar.0 One knows from the above clearly proved doctrine that the corresponding funeral feast was celebrated in autumn (according to solar reckoning), but also three days before the Resurrection feast according to lunar reckoning (comp, pp. 35 ff.).
The festivals of death and resurrection in autumn and spring correspond to the quarters of the year.7 When divided into two they celebrated the
Feast of the Solstices
The winter solstice is then the birthday of the god of the year {dies solis invicta in the Roman calendar), and the summer solstice the festival of the death of Tammuz, which is brought about by a boar, the beast of Ninib-Mars, to whom the sun
1   Upon the astral mythological connection of the wedding motif with the new age, comp. pp. 35 ff., 87, and see also B.N. T., 45.
- Reisner, Hymnen No. VIII. ; see Zimmern, K.A.T., 3rd ed., 371.
3   Gudea C., ii. 1-7 ; see Zimmern, as above.
4   Wife of Marduk, identical with Ishtar, see Dt. 109, A.B., v. 375 f. ; comp. P. 95-
5   Herod., i. 183 ; Herod., ii. 170 f.; Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, 359 ; see B.N. T., ix. 19, and the works quoted there. Upon the grave of Set see Chwolsohn, Ssabier, ii. 617. According to the Nabataean writings of El Asojuthi the Copts held the two great Pyramids to be the graves of kings ; the Mandreans held them to be the graves of Set and of Hermes, and sacrificed there.
6   Code of Hammurabi, ii. 26 seq. The myth of Venus sunk into the depths has, however, nothing to do with the New Year, see p. 121.
7   Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, chap. Ixix : the Phrygians celebrated a festival in autumn, when Attis falls asleep, and another in spring, when he awakes.
THE CALENDAR FESTIVALS
97
 
FIG. 29.—Greek sarcophagus representing the farewell and death and the lamentation for Adonis. After Roscher, Lex. d. Myth , s.v. Adonis.
point of the solar orbit then belongs. The Boar motif is old,1 the Vlth tablet of the Gilgamesh epic already recording the tears of Ishtar (mother-goddess, and at the same time de- stro}ri n g w i fe) sh ed every year for Tammuz, and the motif must have been taken from a still older age.
Evidence is given of the funeral feast itself in Babylon by some hymns on the journey to hell of Ishtar which will be mentioned later, and which certainly were recited at the festival:
 
FIG.
30. — Little garden of Adonis, with phallus. Fresco in Pompeii. After Annates da Musee Guimet, xvi. (Vellay).
Shepherd, Lord, Tammuz, husband of Ishtar,
Lord of the kingdom of death, Lord of the water realm,
1 Stucken, A si rat my then, iS seq. The month of Tammuz belongs to Ninib (IV. R. 33, No. 2, 6), and the ibex (kumsiru) is sacred to him. According to a Syrian tradition Tammuz is a hunter and poacher-, see Stricken, Astralmythen, p. 89. Variations on this are the lion (zodiacal sign of the summer solstice in the age of Taurus, as in Hygin ; see Winckler, Krit. Sehriften, iii. 108, and Landau, Beitr., iv. 24 j^.)and the bear (corresponding to the constellation of the Bear at the north point of the heavens, looked upon by the Arabs as the bier, that is, as the death-place of the dying god of the year) ; comp. Slucken, as above, 34 seq., and see fig. 31.
VOL. I.
7
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BABYLONIAN RELIGION
A Tamarind which drank no water in the furrow,
Whose branch brought forth no blossom in the wilderness,
A little tree, not planted in its water channel,
A little tree, torn up by the roots.1
Another song2 is clearly a dirge of the day when Taminuz fell, in great tribulation (summer solstice), in the month which cut short the year of his life: “ Shamash [here = Ninib], let him sink into the Underworld, since it is all over with mankind11; or, as the writer of the tablet adds resignedly, “ The children of men are brought to rest.” The end of the journey to hell of Ishtar gives evidence of such a funeral and resurrection festival. We are more accurately informed about the festival celebrations in the worship of Ba’alat of By bios, and later by the pseudo-Lucian, de Dea Syra, and in Asia Minor and Rome by the records of the Cybele-Attis festival, but above all in the letters of the astronomer Firmicus Maternus to the sons of Constantine upon the errors of heathen religions.3 The rock- reliefs of el-Ghine in Lebanon, in the district of the river of Adonis (nahr Ibrahim), which represent the Tam muz myth (fig. 31), will be spoken of later. The festival seems to have been a favourite one with the Jen's, particularly in the times when they feared “ Yahveh hath forsaken the land ” (Ezek. ix. 9), and thev looked elsewhere for comfort. In Ezek. viii. 14 the
J
women weep for Taminuz at the gate of the city (the opposition is the festival of resurrection).
The festival of the Queen of Heaven, which according to Jer. xliv. 17 ff. was in all ages celebrated in Israel, is identical
1   IV. R. 27; comp. “Holle u. Paradies,” A.O., i. 32, 10, and see now also Zimmern, vii. 3, 10 scq. Compare the little gardens of Adonis, KT}TTOI ’Addan5os, whose flowers without roots, or sown in shallow earth and exposed to the sun, quickly fade. Fig. 30 represents such an Adonis garden from a Pompeian wall picture. In the Anthosphoria the return of Persephone was celebrated with flute-playing and by maidens with baskets of flowers.
2   See “Holle und Paradies,” A.O., i. 32. Some new songs to Tammuz have been found in Nippur ; see Radau in the Anniversary Volume by Hilprecht.
3   For further detail on the Babylonian, Phoenician, and Phrygian-Lydian forms of worship, see pp. 125 ff. In the valuable work by Hepding, Attis seine Mythcn u. scin Knit, the coherence with the System is not recognised, otherwise the author would not, for example, find it possible to separate the worship of the great Mother from that of Attis (p. 12 seq.); also the relationship to corresponding Greek cults is undervalued.
THE CALENDAR FESTIVALS
with this death and resurrection festival;1 it is the feast when (Jer. vii. 18 ; comp. xliv. ff“.) fire was kindled by the youths (solstice festival) and cakes baked for the Queen of Heaven ; comp, also 3 Macc. vi. 32. The lamentations of Jephthah are
 
FIG. 31.—Death of Tammuz by the bear (comp- p. 97, n- 0 and lamentation for Tammuz. Rock-relief at Lebanon, After Landau, Bcifr., iv. : comp. Renan, Expedition en Phdnieic, fig. 36.
treated in the manner of the same myth ; see upon the Book of Judges, p. 168, ii. When Josiah came to his tragic end they mourned for him, according to Zech. xii. 11 (comp. 2 Chr. xxxv. 25), with Adad-Rimmon, it'. Tammuz songs, which perhaps at
1   In the myth of physical life Tammuz is the dying and then germinating seed ; see B.N.T., 23 seq. t: Because the bones of Tammuz have been ground in the mill, at certain times the Mandceans might not eat anything ground (Chwolsohn, ii. 204). Baking of cakes in the festivities was the antithesis.
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BABYLONIAN RELIGION
the same time promised the hope of his return.1 The chronicler of the history of Joseph lets a strain of the Tam muz motif appear in the story of the popular hero sinking into misfortune and rising again to be benefactor of his people; see chapter on Joseph’s history.
What appears in the stories of Joseph, etc., to be a poetic adaptation of mythological motifs, becomes a relapse into heathenism in the Jewish Tammuz cult so much blamed by Ezekiel and Jeremiah. The dividing line is a narrow one, and we may see in our own day how German hymns to Wotan may refer back to worship of the summer solstice. But with Israel another point comes into question. Perhaps nowhere more plainly than here can we see the close relationship of the Israelitish and also the Christian religion with the Ancient-Oriental mystical wisdom, and at the same time how far above it they stand, in that they confer new meaning upon these parables from nature. The passages in the Prophets of intensest expectation of the Redeemer, especially Isa. liii. of the reawakening of the Lamb sunk in death, are closely related to the motifs of the dying and returning to life of the god of the year, and the Apocalypse makes use of the same motifs for the glorification of the victorious Christ, as we have endeavoured to show in B N.T., 13 ff.
THE PANTHEON
The Babylonian Pantheon appears to a superficial view to be an inextricable tangle, of gods and demons, but the theory of the universe as described above offers a guiding thread through the labyrinth. Each divinity corresponds either to an astral phenomenon or to some circumstance or occurrence in nature which is connected with the course of the stars. The divine forces ruling in nature appear in it in human form ; for as, according to the Ancient-Oriental conception, man is made in the image of God, so their conception of the divinity must of necessity be anthropomorphic.2 There is no question in the Ancient-Oriental world, as known to history, of the lower conception which finds godhead itself in the animal world, or in
1   As in Egypt they said to the mummy: “ Thou art Osiris,” i.e. “ Thou shalt live again,” so here the equivalent is “Thou art Tammuz.” According to Pausanias, vi. 23, 1, the same ceremony was observed by women at the grave of Achilles in Elis.
2   In the myth of the bird Zii, the bird purposes stealing the Tables of Destiny, and he waits till the dawn of day, till Bel has bathed himself in pure water, and ascended his throne and placed the crown upon his head.
THE PANTHEON
101
plants and trees (totemism and fetishism). When the gods appear as animals in Egypt (as in Mexico) we see a correspondence to the Babylonian representations where the gods stand upon animals (see, for example, figs. 7 and 43). This may be taken as evidence of, though it does not prove, a prehistoric stage of worship absorbed by the “teaching.” We take the animals to be the image of the zodiacal figures in which the divine powers revealed themselves.1
In ancient Babylonia we find sacred cities, and the place of worship on earth has its corresponding place in heaven ; see pp. •57 f. and 62. Every religion is in truth a universal religion reflecting the cosmos or the cycle, but inasmuch as the part and the whole correspond, so groups of sacred cities reflect the whole celestial picture.'2 The king is shar kahuna, shar kishati, shar kibrat arba'im, therefore lord of the universe. Each individual district is a cosmos.
The oldest state we know was the South Babylonian Sumer (probably identical with Kingi). The towns comprised by this state 3 early lost their political status, like Ur in historical times, if indeed they ever possessed any (Eridu. Nippur). But their religious status was never forgotten. These chief places are :
Erech with the temple of Ann (E-Ana) and of Ishtar.
A'ippur :   Bel.
Eridu :   Ea.
Ur:   Sin.
Larsa :   Shamash.
La gash :   Ningirsu and Nina (Ishtar).
One sees that in these five chief towns of Sumer the two principal triads are successively represented.4
The next oldest political structure that we know is the North Babylonian Akkad. Before this came into being there must have
1   How it came about that the heavens were mapped out in pictures of animals is a prehistoric question. We can only establish the phenomena. Upon so- called totemism, compare Im Kcunpf urn den alten Orient, i. i.
- Whether in this case the already existing divinities of the System of the universe were divided amongst the chief places of the states in the sense described on p. 54, or whether, as is more likely, the chief places of worship with their divinities influenced the formation of the System, can naturally, in the dimness of ancient history, not be finally decided.
3   We can speak positively of a state of Sumer as early as the time of Lugalzaggisi.
4   Lagash with Ninib-worship played a part for a very brief period in the Gudea age.
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been great political upheavals of which we know nothing. This is shown by the vanished cities spoken of, for example, in the temple lists of Telloh, and by the mysterious disappearance of Borsippa, sister city of Babylon, which with its Nebo-worship must have surpassed Babylon in former times. The ascendancy of Akkad possibly arose through the first Semitic migration. Unfortunately there have been few' excavations in this area as yet; the most important being those of Sippar. It seems that here too the places of worship mirror the astral System, and even the System of the planetary divinities.
?   :   Sin.
Sippar:   Shamash.
Akkad :   lslitar.
Babel:   Marduk-Jupiter.
Borsippa :   Nebo-Mercury.
Kutha:   Nergal-Saturn.
Kish (?) Harsagkalama : Ninib-Mars (Zamama).1
It is remarkable that Sin is missing.
Perhaps the Mesopotamian districts with lunar-worship (Harran) may have been included here. The worship of the Moon-god in Haran and in Ur repeatedly appears connected.
In North Babylonia there is as yet no certain evidence of any place of worship of Ninib, partner of Nergal (in South Babylonia lie predominates in Nippur). In the North Babylonian places of worship as yet known to us, we find of the principal divine triad, only Anu, god of Durilu, boundary fortress towards Elam (see p. 103 set).).
An entirely new period of Babylonian theology is introduced with the “exaltation of Marduk” under the Hammurabi dynasty. Babylon became metropolis of the united Babylonian kingdom and at the same time the intellectual centre of the whole of Western Asia, and the synchronous figure of Marduk of Babylon, placed in relationship to all the chief gods and cults and so glorified, gives the religious counterpart to this political fact.
We will now give briefly some characteristics of the chief figures of the Babylonian Pantheon, especially in their relationship to the astral system.
ANU
Anu is the father, or king, in the family of gods (aim shar Haiti), and in a special sense summits deus. In the legends of Zu, for instance, he speaks to the “ gods, his children.” The opening of the epic Enuma clish describes the assembly of the 1 There was a sanctuary of Ninib in Babylon also ; see H. C., ii. 56 ff.
THE PANTHEON—ANU
103
gods as a family gathering, where the father, who is here not Anu, bat Anshar, an older (before this universe) emanation of the godhead, somehow abdicates the government to his wisest son (Marduk).
Anil’s dignity was also recognised in the places where the god of the city was held to be king of the gods, and so Hammurabi says in the introduction to his collection of laws:
“ When Anu,1 the Sublime, king of the Anunnaki, and Inlil, Lord of Heaven and Earth, who determine the fate of nations, had given the lordship over mankind upon earth to Marduk, victorious son of Ea,” etc.
The seat of Anu (An = *‘heaven ”) is the north heaven. His throne is at the celestial North Pole, from whence he rises, as, for example, in the myth of Adapa.2
By the law of analogy the north point of the world also belonged to him, and therefore he appears in the System as Sin and Ninib.3 When on the Vlth table of the epic of Gilgamesh Ishtar ascends in anger to the heaven of Anu, and when the gods in fear of the flood climb “ up to the heaven of Anu” and crouch under the hamati (this is probably the wall of the topmost stage of steps leading up into the zodiac), we may take it to mean an ascent by the zodiac.4
The Canaanite designation of this chief divinity is iln {i.e. ^), for example, in Dur-ilu, the City of Anu, and from this come the Hebrew names for god, ruS^X, Dvtax. The word certainly does not mean the “aim” (“goal”), Kafavoc/ien, as Delitzsch, B.B.I., like de Lagarde. takes it; we agree much more with Zimmern that “il,” like “An,” are designations of the celestial North Pole ; see p. 50, n. 1, and Monotheistischen Stromungen, p. 19-5
1   The sign an should probably originally be read tin, i.e. “ Canaanite” el\ but this ilu-el corresponds to the Babylonian Anu ; see below, Hit mbit of Der = Anu.
2   The popular presentment in Israel is the same; comp. Isa. xl. 22 : God enthroned upon the Mg of the earth, the inhabitants whereof appear as grasshoppers.
3   For this mythological identification see pp. 30 and 10S, and for the Mountain of God in the North see Ps. xlviii. 3, where “north” undoubtedly belongs to “mountain,” and Job. xxxvii. 22.
4   In the twilight of the gods of northern mythology the gods ascei d by the seven steps of the rainbow, corresponding to the zodiac ; see Gen. ix. 13. Jacob sees in his dream the steps which lead to the palace of God ; see Gen. xxviii.
5   It is not certain whether the name of the god of the Sepharvites (Anammelech, Aojl', 2 Kings xvii 31), contains the name of the god Anu ; see the passages cited above.
104
BABYLONIAN RELIGION
In South Babylonia we know of Erecli, 44 dwelling-place of Anu and Ishtar,11 mentioned in the so called legends of Dibarra (temple of E-ana) and in North Babylonia of Durilu = Der,1 as places of worship of Anu.
INLIL
In-lit,2 who is also called by his epithet Bel, that is, 44 Lord 11 in the superlative sense, is 44 Lord of Lands,1'1 i.e. of the earth, of the Celestial Earth, that is, of the zodiac, as well as of the Terrestrial Earth.3 In the latter as in the former sense he is called shad it mbit, for the celestial as well as the terrestrial kingdom is thought of as a mountain (harsag-kurktira), or bel matdti, 44 Lord of Lands11 (namely, of the celestial as of the terrestrial inhabited lands in contradistinction to air and sea).4
His special place of worship was Nippur in South Babylonia, in the temple of E-kur.5 This E-kur corresponds to the cosmic seat of the divinity, which this Babylonian Olympus represents.
EA
Ea, or reversed, A-e (’Ao? in Damascius), 44 Sumerian ” En-ki. The name E-a expresses his relation to water, and En-ki perhaps his (indirect) relation to the Underworld ; see p. 14. As complement to Anu and Inlil he is Lord of Apsu, the
1   Nebuchadnezzar I. calls Der “the City of Anu ” (A ~.B.. iii. I. 165), and in the Lists of Eponyms for 834, S15, and 7S6 (A'. T., 2nd ed., 76), it is said : Hit rabit, the great god, journeyed forth from Der.
2   We do not know what the name means. If Hommel’s explanation, “Lord of the Air,” is correct, still Bel is not by any means Lord of the Air in opposition to En-ki as “Lord of the Earth”; see p. 104. Zimmern’s deductions (K.A.T., 3rd ed., p. 355) combine in a not very happy way the theories set up by Hommel, Jensen, and Winckler. Especially it is not correct that a great deal of the Bel- worship in Nippur was transferred to Marduk. That In-lil was so pronounced and therefore was not only an ideogram, is shown by the translation “'IAMvos in Damascius; in old epic texts from the Hammurabi age (C.T., xv. 1-6) he is called Lillu and Lellu ; comp. IV. R. 27, 56 f.
3   Comp. Siniflnt, 36 fif. : “Since Bel hates me, I will tarry no longer upon Bel’s earth (kakkar)into the ocean will I descend, to dwell with Ea, my Lord,”
4   As “Lord of Lands,” that is, of the zodiac, he also possesses occasionally the Tables of Fate ; see p. 50.
5   Comp. Hilprecht, Die Ausgrabtmgcn im Bel- Tcmpel von Nippur.
THE PANTHEON—EA
105
Celestial Ocean, as well as of the terrestrial ocean which surrounds and flows underneath the earth. Apsu itself is therefore indicated as ZU-AB, “ House of Wisdom,” for out of it the wisdom of Ea rises.1 As the creator god from whose kingdom the present aeon of the world arose (see p. 8), he also was “ Father of the Gods.”2 His special place of worship is Eridu,3 4 i.c. Abu Shahrein, south (!) of Ur.

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Re: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST (sumer) I
« Reply #7 on: October 04, 2016, 02:41:57 PM »
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The temple in Eridu was called E-apsu,
“ House of the Ocean.” From the regulations for worship, in which the water “ at the mouth of the streams” plays a great part, one may gather that in primeval times Eridu was upon the sea coast and that the •ates and Tigris flowed there separately into the Persian Gulf. In descriptions of the sanctuary in religious texts it is necessary to distinguish in every case whether it is speaking of the earthly Eridu or of the corresponding celestial sanctuary of Ea. senjjng Ea-Cannes, Eridanos in the southern firmament was from Nimrud-Kalach. somehow connected with Eridu. The temple The at Eridu was called Esagila (see K.T., 99), as was later the temple of Marduk of Babylon.
We meet with Ea as the god of Wisdom and Science, as protector of artisans, and as law-giver.5 He is especially the Lord of all magic arts: “ The great Lord Ea has sent me, he has placed his spell upon my mouth.”
His worship is invariably connected with the idea of holy water. In a text of worship V. R. 51 the priest, clad in a "garment of linen from Eridu,” proceeds to meet the king on
1   Pp. 6 f., 47 f. On Ea = Oannes (fig. 32), see pp. 47 f.
2   King, No. 12.
3   In Shurippak and Girsu, the place of worship of Nin-Girsu, and in Erech also there were special sanctuaries of Ea. Dungi guards the religion of Eridu.
4   Compare the goat mask of the Juno Cuvitis or Sospita in Gerhard’s Atlas zti Gesamm. Akad. Abhandlungen, tablet 36, No. 4. The feather coat is also found amongst the most ancient figures in Telloh.
5   P. 4S.
 
106   BABYLONIAN RELIGION
the threshold of the “House of Cleansing/’and greets him with the speech:
“ May Ea rejoice over thee,
May Damkina, Queen of the Deep Waters, enlighten thee with her countenance,
May Marduk, the great overseer of the Igigi, raise up thy head.” 1
We have already spoken
 
Flo. 33.—The god Marduk in astral garment (comp. 190, ii. note) as Dragon-slayer (lapis-lazuli). Found in Babylon.
from the dead.” In IV. R.
(p. 9) of Ea as ilu a me hi, Divine man, and of Marduk-Adapa as the son of the Divine man. As the source of all generation he is Ea ska nabniti or Mummu ban I’d la, the all-forming Mummu.'2 3 The “ Seed of Mankind ” (zer ameluti) created by lila in Eridu, who in heroic presentation is called Adapa, appears in the genealogy of the gods as Marduk, son of JEa,z and as such he is Lord of the New World. Mythology expx-esses this in making all the other gods lay their power in his hands, and Ea says : “ Thou shalt be called by my name of Ea.” Therefore in the account of the Creation quoted in Chap.
III.   he is Demiurgos, and in the texts of exorcism, Helper and Eorgiver of sins, who heals all ills and who loves “ to awaken 17a, 38-42, it says:
1   Note the accord with the blessing of Aaron in Numb. vi. 24 set/.
- Comp. p,.. 6 set/., 90, n. 1.
3 See Marduk in Roscher’s Lexicon der Mythologie, ii. sp. 234o set/., in which, however, I had not yet clearly recognised the original independence of Marduk of Eridu as opposed to Marduk of Babylon. And Hehn also, who has lately written exhaustively upon Marduk (“Hymnen und Gebete an Marduk,” A.B., v. 279 seq.), has not recognised the difference. Upon the setting of Marduk in the place ofNebo, the “prophet” of the new age, see pp. 74, 91.
THE PANTHEON—EA
107
For his son’s sake the Gocl-man 1 serves thee in humility.
The Lord hath sent me,
The great Lord Ea hath sent me.” 2
In the exorcisms father and son carry on a dialogue in which the same wisdom and power is ascribed to the son as to the father. Some of the texts are translated here in illustration :
Exorcism. An evil curse has fallen like a demon upon a man, misery and pain have fallen upon him, unholy misery has fallen upon him, an evil curse, ban, plague !
The evil curse has slain that man like a lamb, his god departed from his body, his guardian goddess stood aside,
misery and pain enveloped him as in a garment, and overpowered him.
Then Marduk saw him,
he entered the house to his father Ea and spoke :
My lather! An evil curse has fallen, like a demon, upon a man.
He told it him the second time.
I know not what has happened to that man and how he may be cured.
Ea answered his son Marduk :
My son ! What knowest thou not, what more can I tell thee ?
Marduk ! What knowest thou not, what more can I tell thee ?
What I know, that thou also knowest.
But go hence, my son Marduk !
Bring him to the house of holy sprinkling,
break his ban, loose his ban !3
The tormenting ills of his body,
whether a curse of his father,
or a curse of his mother,
or a curse of his elder brother
or a curse of the murderess, unknown to the man,
1   May also be called “ the God of Man.”
2   See Winckler, F., iii. 299, and above, pp. 9 and 47. Compare with these 4 Esr. xiii. 25 f. (Kautzsch, Pseudepig., 396): “When thou hast beheld a man rise from the heart of the sea, that is he through whom he will deliver creation.” According to the Enuma elish, Vllth table, Marduk the dragon-slayer has “created mankind, to deliver them” ; see pp. 185 f.
3   The name of the great gods served as a special exorcism. This is to be noted in explanation of the religious veneration of the “ Name” ; see B.N. T., 104 seq.
108
BABYLONIAN RELIGION
through the exorcism of Ea the ban is
like an onion peeled,
like a date cut off,
like a palm panicle broken off!
Ban ! By heaven be thou exorcised, by the earth be thou exorcised !
In another text of the Shurpu series it says :
Thou shalt heal 1 the sick, thou shalt raise the fallen, thou shalt help the weak, thou shalt [change] evil fortune—and so on.
In one place it is said of him :2
Wise one, first born of Ea, creator of the race of man, Yea, thou art the Lord, like father and mother3 to mankind (?) art thou,
Yea, thou, like the son-god lightenest thou their darkness ! Another time it says : 4
His anger is as a flood, his reconciliation like a merciful father.
It is quite clear from the hymns that the worship of Marduk of Eridu agreed with his solar character. The work of the son of Ea reveals itself in the early sun and in the spring sun, which rises daily and yearly out of the ocean and brings new life. His character as God, revealing his work in the planet Jupiter, appears to have been first placed foremost in the worship at Babylon, as the connection with Nebo (Mercury) of Borsippa and Nergal (Saturn) of Kutha shows.
For Marduk of Babylon, see pp. 134? ff.
SIN
Sin or Nannar,5 “ Sumerian11 En-zu, is the Lunar-god. Within the triad, which represents the revelation of the
1   Bullutn, “ to make alive ” ; compare further the Jewish figure of speech, John iv. 50: “ thy son liveth,” i.e. he is cured.
2   King, Babylonian Magic, No. 12.
3   In the preceding texts from the collection by King, which, however, seem to refer to Marduk of Babylon, it is said : ,! May thy heart rejoice as that of the father who begat me, and as that of the mother who bore me.”
4   King, Babylonian Magic, No n.
5   Written with the same ideogram as the city Ur (may it be a play upon urnt, “light”?). Nannar is “ the Illuminator” ; see Zimmern, K.A.T., 3rd ed., 362. In the Ishtar hymnal, translated by King in his Seven Tablets, Ishtar is called Nan- narat shamH n irtsitim, “ the Illuminator of Heaven and Earth.”
THE PANTHEON-SIN
109
deity in the phenomena of heaven (calendar), he is “ Father of the Gods,1’1 like Anu in the cosmic triad. In the hymn IV.
 
FIG. 34.—Sin as the New Moon and Venus-Ishlar (with the “Morning Star!” comp. fig. 43). Babylonian seal cylinder ; original in Rome.2
 
FIG. 35.—Supplicants led to the Moon-god. Ancient-Babylonian seal cylinder, from Menant, Glyptique, i., pi. iv., 2.
R. 9, he is called Anu ; for the cosmos corresponds to the cycle, according to the Babylonian teaching space is = time. In rela-
1   The naming of Sin bunt, “bull,” refers to the horns of the bull, which recall the horns of the crescent moon. In K. 100, Obv. 7, Sin is called “Bearer of Powerful Hums”; see also p. 113. In the Mithra cult Luna appears upon a biga drawn by white bulls. Curnont in Die JMysterien des Mithra, 89, explains the bulls by the moon’s signification of growth ; this corresponds with the old discarded view. Every god may be the bull (bunt), and every goddess the cow, in so far as they bear lunar character.
2   The first symbolic sign to the right of the figure bearing the Morning Star is the symbol of Marduk (repeated three times), to the right of it a curved serpent.
110
BABYLONIAN RELIGION
 
deliverer'” The sun bears the
tion to the sun, the moon bears the Overworld character, the character of life and of resurrection in Babylonian teaching. For when the full moon is at his culminating point, the sun, in opposition in the winter solstice, has arrived at the lowest point. In his own appearance also the moon bears the character of life. He is inbu sha inn rammunishu ibbanu sh/ha, “fruit which from itself reproduces itself and continues.” Therefore he is also one of the bearers of the “ expected thought. His symbolic colour is green (see p. 65).
in opposition to him Underworld character, representing death, for in his presence the stars disappear. The learned Babylonian also knew that the monthly darkening of the moon is caused by the sun, as may be gathered from the cosmic mythological text reproduced on p.
FIG sd-mU-moon a°d hand m i In Egypt, land of the (Venus), sacred symbol amongst the   _   OJ r *
Arabs (hand of Fatme) Amulet sun, this is reversed : Osiris-moon
in author’s possession. Acquired ?   I   i 1 i ,1
in Tunis   underworld, and the sun is
Overworld divinity. As the god of resurrection the colour green is given to Sin.2 Of the phases, naturally most stress is laid upon the new moon. It is greeted everywhere throughout the East with jubilation as the crescent szvord which has conquered the dragon.3 Special importance is given, as we have seen, to the spring new moon 4 (see pp. 36 ff.) as ushering in the spring full moon. The spring equinox pre-
1   Compare also the symbols of moon, sun, and Ishtar on the boundary stone from Susa, No. 20 (see article on Shamash in Roscher’s Lex ikon der Mythologie, sp. 535 f.), where the new moon and the sun are designated by one symbol as the dark moon.
2   IV. R.G., 2T,a ; see p. 30.
3   Arabic, Hilal; probably this is the origin of the hallelu-(jah), as was first conjectured by de Lagarde. Compare the astronomical picture, fig. 15. Isa. xxvii. 1 is the sickle sword moon-motif.
4   The new moon and Venus form the sacred symbol of the Arabs. As among the members of the body the hand corresponds to Venus (see Hommel, G.G.G., p. 101), we find in the Mohammedan sacred symbol reproduced (fig. 36) the hand used in place of the star of Venus The Moslems, however, call it the “hand of Mohammed.”
THE PANTHEON—SIN
111
cedes the forty days of equinoctial storm.1 They are the days during which the Pleiades (in the age of Taurus, therefore after the beginning of spring) vanish in the light of the sun, and are therefore taken to be seven evil spirits, powers of Nergal. We possess a mythological text which describes the conflict and victory :
The Babylonian Myth of the Dark Moon and his Rescue from the “Seven Evil Spirits'”2
(The beginning is missing. It may be gathered from line thiity-two that to Bel, Lord of the Zodiac, information is brought of the siege of the moon by the seven evil spiiits.)
Storms bursting forth,3 evil spirits are they,
pitiless demons, generated upon the Celestial bar (Zodiac);4
These are they which bring illness,
causing evil to press into the head (of men), daily evil
The Hrst of the Seven is in the [horrible?] tempest, the second is a dragon, of whose [great ?] open mouth no [• _...];
the third is a panther with monstrous throat [. . . .]; the fourth is a terrible serpent [. . . .] ;
the fifth is a raging ab-bu, from whom there is no escape by flight (?);
the sixth is a [. . . .] breaking loose, who God and King [....];
the seventh is the evil rain-storm, who [. . . .].
There are seven, messengers of Anu. their king.
From place to place they bring darkness,
Typhoon furiously raging over the heavens are they,
Thick clouds, making dark the heavens, are they.
Violent approach of the bursting winds are they.
Causing darkness in the clear day;
With storms, with evil winds, they rage around.
Rain of Ramman (Adad), a mighty devastation are they:
At the right hand of Ramman they go about, to the deeps of heaven like lightning [. . . .], they come hither to accomplish destruction :
1   They represent winter, like the Epagomenre at the end of the year; comp, p. 93. They are held to last forty days (‘arabafn in Syria to the present day) or fifty days (hamstn). See upon this A.B.A., 2nd ed., pp. S7 f.
2   Taken to be a recitation in the exorcism text, IV. R. 5. Compare the interpretation given by Winckler, F., iii. 5S flf., and “ Ilimmelsbild u. Weltenbild,” A.O., iii. 2-3'-, 65 ff. A. Jeremias, article on Ramman in Roscher’s Lexikoti der Mylhologie. Evidence from this important astral-mythological text has already been used by us in several places.
3   See above, n. I.
4 Shttpitk sham3.
112
BABYLONIAN RELIGION
They stand hostile to the wide heaven, the dwelling of the King Anu, and there is none who opposes them.
When Bel received this message, he weighed the matter in his heart,
and took counsel with Ea the sublime vumu of the gods.
/ They placed Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar to rule over the celestial ) ‘bar,1
) he divided the government of the whole heavens between ' them and Anu, the three gods, his children ;
night and day, without ceasing, they were to serve there.
Now when the Seven, the evil gods, stormed in upon the celestial bar,
they besieged Sin who lights,
they made allies of the hero Shamash (the Sun) and of the strong Ram man,
whilst Ishtar Avon her glorious d%veHing-place with Anu and strove to become Queen of Heaven.2
(The following mutilated lines describe the misfortunes brought about by the eclipse. The land is wasted and mankind oppressed with misery.)
NOAV when the Seven ....
To begin .... evil ....
His glorious mouth for ever ....
Sin .... the race of mankind . .
His light was darkened, he (the moon)3 sat not upon his throne.
The evil gods, messengers of their king Anu, bringing it to pass that evil enters into the head (of man) makes them tremble . . . . , they seek after evil,
they break forth from the heavens like a Avind over the land. From heaven Bel saAV the darkening of the hero Sin ; the Lord spoke to his seiwant Xusku :
“My servant Nusku, take a message to Apsu (ocean, the realm of Ea), take neAvs of my son Sin, AVIIO is miserably darkened in the heavens, tell it to Ea in Apsu.”
Nusku obedientlyAcarried the word of his Lord,
Avent in haste to Ea in Apsu ;
to the Prince, the mighty counseller, the Lord Ea Nusku carried the Avord of his Lord.
Ea received this neAvs in Apsu,
he bit his lips, his mouth Avas full of Avoe,
Ea spoke to his son Marduk and said to him :4
1 P. 14.   2 Pp. 39, 119.   3 Full-moon point, see fig. 15.
4   Here also Marduk plays the part originally given to Nebo.
THE PANTHEON—SIN
113
“ Go, my son Marduk,
let the darkening of the Prince’s son, the Light-giver Sin, who is miserably darkened in the heavens, shine forth in the heavens,
the Seven, the evil gods, who fear not the laws, the Seven, the evil gods, who break forth like a flood and afflict the land,
breaking over the land like a water-spout, the Light-giver Sin they have violently besieged, they have made the heroes Shamash and Adad their confederates. . .   1
The phases are described in the Vth table of the epic Enuma elish :2
<fHe lit ii]) the moon,3 to rule the night, he ordained him as a night body, to distinguish the days: monthly, unceasingly, go forth (new moon)4 from the (dark) disc (enchanted cloak of darkness), again to give light over the land5 6 (hilal!) at the beginning of the month, beam forth with horns, to determine six days (the seventh day is half moon, then the horns vanish); on the 7th day the disc shall be half, on the 14th thou shalt reach (?) the half (monthly) (full moon, the half of the lunar cycle). When Shamash (sun) from the heights of heaven .... lights (?) thee behind him (?) (From the time of the full moon the sun is beneath the horizon when the moon rises, and therefore lights the further side.) [On 21st.] Approach the path of the sun; [on 27th, that is, 28th] Thou shalt meet with Shamash, and stand with him ” (meet the sun and vanish in him).0
The places of worship of Sin are Ur in South Babylonia and Haran in Mesopotamia, where he is worshipped as Bel-Haran and also under the name of Sin: Nabonidus speaks of the temple of Sin at Haran.7
A "twin” character of Sin and Nergal has already (p. 71) been spoken of. Nergal in this case was like the sun. When in V. R. 46 Lugalgira and Shitlamtaea are called twins :
1   The rest is missing. The exorcism follows.
2   Compare with this the tablet of the lunar cycle, fig. 15, p. 36. Line 12 ff. (continuation of the analysis given on p. 31).
3   Variation, “his star.” Ninib-Mars must be meant for completion.
4   U/nush (imp. of namasliii).
5   Not “in the land” ; e-
  • , see King, 193.
    6   Unfortunately the rest is mutilated.
    7   See also Hommel, G. G. G., p. S7. In the South Arabian names of the gods, as at present known, from the exclusively lunar character of which Hommel draws the most far-reaching conclusions, how far the names really denote the moon is,
    yoL. 1.   8
    m
    BABYLONIAN RELIGION
    Star of the Great twins Lugalgira and Shitlamtaea,
    Sin and Nergal,
    the following equation may be formed on the grounds of the deductions given on p. 15:
    Gemini — Moon and Sun
    = Ninib and Nergal1
    = Upper half and under half of the ecliptic.
    But now Lugalgira = Gibil, for Gibil as Fire-god belongs to the (hot) north point of the ecliptic, therefore Lugalgira = Ninib (moon- planet in this system) and then Shitlamtaea = Nergal (sun-planet in this system).
    But the idea of twins can also refer to the moon alone, in the two halves, the growing and the waning moon (for this reason he is repeatedly called ellamme, “twin,” compare the zodiacal hieroglyph which represents Gemini: 7T) ;2 and in this connection Lugalgira mav be the growing and Shitlamtaea the waning half of the moon.
    As Oracle, Sin is Ml pw'usse, “ Lord of Fate.” In Assur- banipal's annals the priest reads by night upon the disc of the full moon what Nebo has written thereon.
    In myth the moon is the Wanderer and the Hunter, and, above all, Shepherd. “ May he fix the course of the stars of heaven ; may he pasture the gods all together as their shepherd.” The court of the moon was therefore called tarbasu supuru, “ sheepfold.” His symbols are staff* (magic wand) and spear, whilst the sun is characterised by the bow. Also the other two magic agents of antiquity, goblet and drinking-horn, agree with the phases of the moon ; the latter is certainly the crescent of the waning moon,3 the former, according to Husing, the half moon.
    in my opinion, not at present possible to decide. The people of Hadramaut worshipped Sin, the Sabceans no doubt understood by Haubas (Haubas and his armies) the moon. What 'Amm of the Katabanians was does not seem to me certain, in spite of names like ‘Amm-ner; and Wadd of the Minzeans was more like Marduk than like Sin. It must always be remembered that sun, moon, and Ishtar show the same phenomena among the “ Canaanite ” divinities.
    1   Zimmern, in K.A.T., 3rd ed., 413, in connection with Jensen, has not noted this fundamental equation, and this is the cause of a great many of his objections to the “ System.”
    2   See Zimmern, A'.A.T., 3rd ed. pp. 363 f. (comp. 413), from whose interpretation I differ in some essential points ; and comp, now Winclder, F., iii. 286 set/.
    3   This is the mythological meaning of the “ Cup of Affliction.”
    THE PANTHEON—SHAMASH
    115
    SHAMASH 1
    “Sumerian'1 Utu, is Sun-god, revealing light and truth and justice. His figure is an evidence that the cosmic religious teaching, which was at the back of the mvtlr in Babylon, did not omit a moral purpose. The consultations of the Oracle and the hymns praise him as “ Judge of the World,11 who rewards the good and enchains the wicked, and who in particular watches over the incorruptibility of the judge. Further, he is the physician, who heals all ills, the protector' of the home, who is commemorated at the dedication of the house. The natural effects of the sun were described mythologically in highly poetic hymns. A great hymn, comprising 400 lines (K. 3182; Gray, The Shamash Religious Texts, Chicago, 1901), describes the operations of the sun of the Mysteries, upon whom all gods and men and beasts depend. Shamash is then celebrated as hearer of all prayers and as guardian of the law. “This is well pleasing unto Shamash (to do it), his life shall be prolonged.11
    The weak, the feeble, the oppressed, the poor
    ’now themselves before thee, whoso tarryeth far from his family,
    far from his home, in the heavy rainstorm in the field,
    the shepherd prays to thee ;
    the fearful wanderer, the merchantman, the straying spirit of the dead, all turn to Shamash. The eyes of the four-footed beasts are directed towards his great light.
    In another hymn it is said :2
    Shamash, King of Heaven and Earth, Ruler of the heights and the depths;
    Shamash, in thy hand it is to make the dead live, to loose the bound !
    Incorruptible Judge, Ruler of mankind, lofty offspring of the Lord of the glittering rising (that of the Moon),
    All-powerful, glorious Son, Light of the Lands,
    Creator of all in Heaven and upon earth art thou, Shamash !
    A hymn upon the sunset says :
    1   Compare upon the following the detailed presentment in the articles on Shamash in Roscher’s Lcxikon dcr Mythologies Zimmern, A.O., vii. 3, 14; Craig, Rel. Texts, ii. 3. All hymns to Shamash except the Gray texts are introductions to exorcisms.
    2   A.O., vii. 3, 15 ; Winckler, Keilschrifttexte, 59 f. ; Zimmern.

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Re: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST (sumer) I
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116
BABYLONIAN RELIGION
Shamash, when thou enterest into the innermost Heavens : The glittering,- bars of Heaven shout to thee in greeting; the wings of the gates of Heaven (see fig. 11) bless thee.
May Aja, thy beloved wife, joyfully appear before thee,
may she quiet thy heart,
thy banquet shall be set before thee ....
 
FIG. 37.—Sanctuary of the Sun-god of Sippar. Dedicatory inscription S82 B.C. by Nabubalbaladan.
The course of the sun over the heavens is thought of as a drive. “ None save Shamash hath crossed over the sea 11 is said in the epic of Gilgamesh. And in the great hymn quoted above it is said: “ Thou dost cross over the great wide sea.'1 This must be the meaning; for V. R. 65, 33b ff. is plainly speaking of his charioteer Bunene, who guides the chariot upon which sits the god, and whose horses he harnesses.1 According
1 See 2 Kings xxiii. 11, “ removal of the horses and chariot given to the sun.” The first hymn of Yasna gives evidence of the chariot of the sun with hurrying horses in ancient Persia. In the Rigveda Indra wrenches a wheel from the chariot of the sun and so checks his course during the fight with the dragon ; comp. Joshua x. 12 f. In the Mithra cult the sun bears the same character. In the morning he cleanses the world and passes over the ocean in his chariot ; see Curnont, jHysterieu des 3/ilhra, pp. 88, 101. The chariot of the sun belongs to the cults which passed over into Europe from the East. In Sofus Muller, Urgeschichte Europas, 116, there is a picture of a sun chariot from the bronze age found in Zeeland. In the Edda (Voluspa) the horses of the sun are mentioned. Also Rabbi Elieser says, “ The sun travels in a chariot.” A Hittite chariot of the sun may be seen in the imagery in Joshua i.
THE PANTHEON—SHAMASH—ISHTAR 117
to another presentment he leaves the bridal chamber as a hero in the morning and runs his course.1
The places of worship of Shamash are Larsa in South Babylonia (Senkerah, south-east from Nippur, probably the Ellasar of Gen. xiv. 1) and Sippar in North Babylonia (Abu Plabba). In both places the temple was called E-babbara, “ the white house.” In Sippar A-a (Ai) is named as his •‘bride,”'2 and f Kettu and Mesharu, Right and Justice, as his children.3 Fig. 37 shows the sanctuary of Shamash in Sippar.
Together with pure sun-worship, of which we know little up to the present, the Babylonian religion emphasises the phenomena dependent upon the sun, of the four (or two) seasons of the year (in a manner four phases of the sun), and sees in the four planets the four chief points of the zodiacal solar phenomena, i.c. (in the epoch which takes Marduk as spring point) Marduk = spring and morning sun, Nebo = autumn sun, Ninib = summer sun, and Nergal = winter sun; see p. 32. We have already spoken of the triad Shamash, Sin, and Ishtar.
IsHTAll
According to her place in the System she is the daughter of Anu, or of Bel, or of Sin. She is the goddess, and her name denotes the idea of universal “goddess.” Every feminine phenomenon of the Babylonian Pantheon is fundamentally embodied in her. She is simply the feminine analogy of the divinity. For this reason h?rtn. “ wife,” is written with the ideogram ATvidingh'-ra, that is, Bdit Uani. As such she is:
1.   The mother of the gods and Mother-goddess, and therefore she is prayed to in the hymns as “helper”; as banat tenishcti, mmhtesherat girnir nabnttn, heavenly midwife. After
1   Comp. Ps. xix. 6 scq. In the hymn quoted above Shamash returns home in the evening to his bride Aja.
2   Llommel explains A-a as moon (“feminine” in contradiction to a “Chaldean,” that is, West Semitic, masculine Moon-god Ai), and draws from it the most far-reaching conclusions. Even when it is said in the time of Sargon (B.A., ii. 37), “Since the days of Shamash and of Ai ” ; and K. 669, 11, “So long as Shamash and Ai endure,” it does not necessarily mean the moon. If Ai is the moon it can only be in the sense described at p. 14.
3   Nisor and Sydyk of the Phoenicians. Sec pp. 137 and 157.
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BABYLONIAN RELIGION
the flood the gods sit with her on the ashru (zodiac?)1 and weep over “their men” who fill the sea like fishes. And in the description in C.T., ix. 121, of the types of the various gods it is said of her: “ Her bosom is bare, upon her left arm she carries a child, which feeds at her breast, whilst she blesses (?) with her right.”2 In the liturgy of Nebo from the time of
 
FIG. 38.—Ishtar and child. Berl. Mus. V. A. 2408.
 
FIG. 39.—Hathor, suckling the boy Osiris.
Assurbanipal, translated by Roscher, Lexikon cler Mythologic,
iii.   sp. 61, it is said:
Little wast thou, Assurbanipal, when 1 left thee with the heavenly Queen of Nineveh,
weak wast thou, Assurbanipal, when thou satest upon the lap of the heavenly Queen of Nineveh,
from the four breasts placed in thy mouth, thou hast sucked from two, and hast buried thy face in the other two.3
2.   She is Queen of Heaven (sharrat shamami u kakkabe),
1   See Chap, on the Flood.
2   See fig. 38.
3   She is therefore represented as a cow, like llathor-Isis in Egypt, and indeed every goddess; see p, 109, n. 1. But this is not totemism, any more than the sacred cow in the Persian religion (Jackson in his Handbook of Persian 1'hilology explains the cow and the hound as the deification of the nomadic ideal). E. Naville has lately discovered a sanctuary in Thebes, the roof representing the starry heavens, and in it is a cow suckling Osiris ; comp. p. 119, n. 2, and see fig. 39.
THE PANTHEON—ISHTAR
119
who takes the place at Anu’s side, whilst sun and moon fight their battle. 44 Queen of Heaven the heights and deeps shall be informed, that is my fame11 is said in an Ishtar psalm.1
As such Ishtar is connected with Venus (sharrat kakkabc, Queen of the Stars), and, following the law of analogy, with the zodiacal sign of Virgo. As Virgo she bears the child'2 or carries the ear of corn in her hand. Spica, 44 ear ’’
(of corn) is the brightest star in Virgo. In a text from the age of the Ar- sacidse the whole sign is called sheni, i.e. “ear,11 Aramaic   Ishtar is
the Sybil ( = shibboleth).3 4
3.   Since Ishtar-Venus * is closely connected with sun and moon, it may be conjectured that with her also in the myth there would be
1   Sm. 954 ; see Izdubar-Nimrod, 61, and Zimmern, .4.0., vii. 3, 22. Upon the “Queen of Heaven" compare the Malkat sham aim of the Bible, see p. 99 ; Athtar shemaim (feminine) amongst the people of Kedar: see Winckler, Gcsc/i. 1st-., ii. 90.
2   Comp. B.N.T., 36S, and see the Indian picture, fig. 40, where the Queen of Heaven with the divinity corresponding to Tammuz is surrounded by the zodiac, with the lion and eagle beneath it as upon the coats-of-arms in the Gudea age. The picture (the original is a carved bas-relief, the copy is from the portfolio of a Brahmin) may be much modernised, but the foundation of the design must be taken from old sources, and also fig. 39 has its source outside Egypt. The Hathor sanctuary mentioned above in n. 3, p. 118, also shows Osiris at a more advanced age. The child has become a blooming youth and is then the lover of the Queen of Heaven (perhaps the Indian picture, fig. 40, represents this). The stages of age correspond to the seasons. In the calendar there are at most six (old age is the Death of the Sun), for example, on the zodiacal relief in Notre Dame mentioned in B.N.T., 498.
3   The countersign shibboleth of Judges xii. 6 has therefore a deep signification.
4   Explicitly attested in III. R. 53, 34^, and drawn on the monuments as eight- or six-pointed star along with moon and sun ; comp. fig. 43. The analogy in the fixed-star heaven is Sirius, the star of Ishtar.
 
120
BABYLONIAN RELIGION
reference to four or two astral phase-phenomena; the deep astral knowledge of the Babylonians and the clearness of the Oriental skies makes it very probable that they knew of the phases of Venus. This division into two is naturally
 
FIG. 41.—The Veiled Islitar (Ashera), marble found at Ras-el-‘ain in Mesopotamia.
also here brought into connection with the revelation of physical life.1 According to her telluric characteristics she is on the one hand the life-destroying (comp. Ishtar, in the Vlth table of the Gilgamesh epic, who brings destruction upon her lovers, Ivore and Persephone), on the other hand the life-bringing goddess, rescuing from the Underworld ( = Ceres)
1   We have repeatedly remarked that the accentuation of this “antagonism in nature” seems to be “ Canaanile.” Hence the prominence of Astarte in Canaanite worship.
THE PANTHEON—ISHTAR
121
—summer and winter, dav and night. Hammurabi says in H.C., ii. 26 ff., see pp. 96, 110, that he “bedecked the grave of Malkat [hr. Ishtar of Sippar as wife of the Sun-god] with green,1’ the colour of resurrection. Or is this analogous to the Venus myth, according to which the evening star which has gone down is brought back as morning star by Shamash? Ishtar in the grave is identical with Tanimuz in the Underworld, and with Marduk in the grave. It is a question everywhere of the cycle of death and life. The “ journey to hell of Ishtar1' describes her descent into the Underworld (winter), when all life dies. She brings back her consort, the sunken Year-god, as in the reversed myth the sunken Ishtar is brought back by the husband ; for example, Erishkigal bv Nergal, Euridice by Orpheus. The one side represents nature, the other the sun, or vice verm. As life-bringing goddess she is veiled (see fig. 41); the unveiled Ishtar brings death.1
Also in her double character of morning and evening star Ishtar reveals the dissension in physical nature. Only in the mythology there is a division into two stars. As Hat shereti she proclaims the new life (morning star, Greek Phosphoros), as evening star (Helal ben Shahar, Isa. xiv. 12 ff., Lucifer) she falls from heaven into the Underworld, like the sun (Tammuz) in winter, and like the moon in the last phase. It is certain that from very early times a cult which was connected with prostitution had been joined to this idea. In the so-called Dibarra legends (K.B., vi. 56 ff.) there are already the shamhdti and lmrimdti, “ whose hands Ishtar restores to the man and gives to him for his own possession.112 The names
1   See YVinckler in HI. V.A. G., 1901, 304 ff. and Gen. xxxviii. 14. Compare further the essay “ Saleiermythus,’’ Beitrag. zur Angr., Bd. vi. We often meet with the veil motif. Fi^j. 41 represents a veiled Ishtar ; see M. Oppenheim, Zeitsch. dcr Berl. Gesellsch. and Erdit., Bd. xxvi. Friedrich holds there is another upon the seal, Clercq, ii. 229, B.A., v. 476. Also in the text cited above, the veil of Ishtar is mentioned, and the sea maiden in the Gilgamesh epic is veiled. Sellin discovered a veiled Ishtar in Taannek. We may recall the veiled picture in Sais, and Demeter “with shining veil”; see in addition, Maass, Orpheus, a book which presents most valuable material, but misses the Oriental character of the Mysteries.
2   From the means we possess at present we cannot arrive at the roots of this Astarte cult either in civil or religious history (the woman is freed from the family ties of marriage and through dedication to the Divinity). It must be emphasised
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BABYLONIAN RELIGION
shamhatl and hurimatl are both the usual designation for the
O
courtesans in Assyrian and Babylonian cities.
4.   The virgin Ishtar was also goddess of war and of
 
FIG. 42.—Ishtar as Goddess of War. Persian period.
 
FIG. 43.—Ishtar as Goddess of the Chase. Brit. Mus. (From Cyprus.)
that, together with the cult of prostitution, which is possibly a decadence, the worship of sexual things (in particular Phallic worship) must have arisen out of a purely religious point of view. The phallus planted by Bacchus at the gate of Hades is a symbol of the Resurrection. In the Old Testament they swore by the sexual organs (comp. p. 77, ii.). Compare Jacob Grimm, Myth., ii. 1200: “ Phallic worship, which a later age, conscious of its shame, carefully avoided, must be the outcome of a blameless veneration for the generative principle.”
THE PANTHEON—ISHTAR
123
hunting (Moon-goddess), even in ancient Babylonian times, as is shown by fig. 42. With Hammurabi, but more especially with the Assyrians, she was “ Mistress of War and of Battle,”1 and with Nabonidus, Xshtar (Anunit) was War-goddess with quiver and bow.2 She is represented as ‘’'clothed with flame,”3 with quiver and bow, and standing upon a leopard; see fig. 43. “I fly to the battle like a swallow” is said in a hymn,4—the Ancient-Oriental Walkyre ! It is not to be wondered at, with the androdyogynous character of every divinity, and specially of Islitar, that we should find a bearded Ishtar in the records;
 
FIG. 44.—Ishtar with Shamash (Rising Sun? see p. 23, fig. 11) and other gods. Brit. Museum.
for example, in Craig's Relig. Texts, i. 7 : “ Like Assur she is bearded” (compare the bearded Venus of the Romans and the beai’ded Aphrodite of Cyprus).5 She is then nothing else than a manifestation of her counterpart. Tam muz, the Arabian Attar.6
The special places of worship of Ishtar are Uruk in South Babylonia, Akkad in North Babylonia, and in Assyria, Nineveh, and Arbela.
1   An Ancient-Babylonian monument with Ishtar as goddess of battle ; see Exod. xiv. 24.
~ K.B., iii. 1, 113 ; 2, 105.
3   Comp. fig. 43.
4   Reisner, Hymn, 108, 44 ; see Zimmern, K.A.T., 3rd ed., 4315.
5   See rreller-Robert, i. 509. Further, compare the androgynous Cybele as Agdestis ; the priests in women’s robes. On the other hand, Adonis serves as wife to Apollo.
6   See above, p. S7. He is evening and morning star (Phosphor-Lucifer) ; see p. 121,
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BABYLONIAN RELIGION
RAMMAN-ADAD1
Ramman or Adad (there is evidence in the cuneiform writings of both readings for the divine ideogram IM)2 represents the
 
FIG. 45. —Picture of a god found in Babylon (Adad-Ramman).
 
FIG. 46.—The god Teshup. From a Hittite plaque at Zenjirli.
divine revelation in storm phenomena, especially in storm with thunder and lightning.3 One of the dominating tribes of Babylonia must have given him the role of summus dens. He
1   Compare the detailed presentment in article on Ramman by A. Jeremias in Roscher’s Lcxikon dcr ftfythologie.
2   On a pre-Armenian inscription discovered by Belck-Lehman it is written A-da-di-nirari (Ramman-nirari). This is the usual Assyrian reading. Other readings are Addu and Dada. There is also evidence for the reading Bir.
3   This god was called Teshup by the Hittites ; see figs. 45 and 46. Jupiter Dolichenus, whose emblems are the same, is Ramman-Teshup imported into Rome and Germania by Syrian traders. In Europe we meet with him as Thor with the double hammer; according to Sofus Miiller, Urgcschichte Europas, 59, the idea passed into Europe from pre-Mycenaean Crete, where Zeus appears with the double hammer.
THE PANTHEON—RAMMAN-ADAD—TAMMUZ 125
is represented as GAL, god of heaven and earth, and as the son of Anu, who fights for the stolen Tables of Fate. Representing storm phenomena in the cjcle, he brings both destruction and blessing. His symbol is a thunderbolt and double hammer.1 Together with Shamasli he is represented in the texts of the oracle as “ Lord of revelations.'” He was referred to upon questions of tempest and of birth. In K 2370 the priest makes inquiry on behalf of his clients wife “ who has long dwelt beneath the shadow of Ramman.'’
She has been safely delivered, but it is not a boy, and the father’s heart is filled with grief. A hymn to Adad-Rannnan says:2
 
FIG. 47.—The god Adad, found in Babylon.
The heavens tremble before the Lord when he is angry,
The earth quakes before Adad when his thunders roll;
The high mountains are cast down before him,
At the sound of his anger.
At the voice of his thunders,
The gods of Heaven ascend into the heights,
The gods of the Lhidenvorld descend into the depths, The sun sinks into the deeps of heaven,
The moon rises in the heights of heaven.
TAMMUZ 3
We have already spoken of this figure in earlier chapters. He represents the recurrent sinking into the Underworld and
1   Friedrich, B.A., v. 45S fif., speaks of some other representations of Adad ; and comp. Joshua i. ff. for corresponding Syrian representations of Teshup.
2   IV. R. 2S, No. 2; see Zimmern, A.O., vii. 3, 12. Many features in the
poetical pictures of the judgments of Yahveh are reminiscent of Adad : 1 Sam. vii. io, comp. xii. 17 ff. ; Isa. xxix. 6; Jer. xxiii. 19; Ez. xiii. 13; comp. Friedrich, B.A.. v. 466.   C.T., xv. 15 f. is a Sumerian hymn to
Ramman.
3   Upon the characteristics of Tammuz, compare “ Holle u. Paradies,” A. 0., i 3"> 9 f-i 32; Vellay, Le ctil/e ifAdonis-Ta/n/nuz; and comp. p. 130, n. 2.
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BABYLONIAN RELIGION
rising again to new life, and may bear solar or lunar—or Venus (Attar, Lucifer, Phosphor)—character; he also includes the phenomena of Marduk (light half) and Nebo (dark half), that is, of Ninib and Nergal;1 but above all he represents the life and death of vegetation which runs parallel with the cycle.2 At the summer solstice Tammuz descends into the Underworld (the month in question bears his name). His mother, Ishtar, or his sister (both in fact identical), descend to bring him back. The descent signifies the death of natural life, the cessation of generation. At the winter solstice he ascends to bring new life. Tammuz (Damuzi) is the god of the Babylonian Mysteries. In the cults of the cities he has no prominent position, in the rituals of sorcery he seldom appears, but he appears in the theopboric names, and that only in the most ancient time, before Hammurabi. But at all times one of the twelve months was dedicated to the festival of Tammuz and bore his name—that is, the month of the summer solstice.
In the Babylonian period the sixth month was called “ the month of the festival of Tammuz,’'1 and in the hymns from the Greek period the month of Tammuz is called “month of the conquest by Tammuz.” The litanies and hymns which celebrate Tammuz dying at the summer solstice and his resurrection at the winter solstice, preserved out of all periods of Babylonian religion, are discussed at pp. 96 ff. In the genealogies of the gods, Tammuz, corresponding to his character as representation of the cycle, belongs on the one hand to Ea (C.T., xxiv. 1 fi‘. ; the first of the six sons of Ea), god of the ocean from which the
1   Tammuz and Gishzida at Anu’s gate, as in IV. R.2 30, No. 2, where it is certainly speaking of Tammuz as son of Ningishzida in the opposing realm, the Underworld. They represent the two halves of the year, at north and south points (comp. p. 157, n. 2 ; pp. 24 and 208), asjachin and Boaz represent the east and west points : the north point being summer solstice is the critical point of all Telluric phenomena. Compare further Zimmern in Abh. der Kgl. Sachs. Ges. der Wissenschaft, 1909, vol. xxvii. (jubilee volume), pp. 70 ff.
2   Myths of vegetation on the one hand, and cosmic and cycle myths on the other hand, correspond to each other. For this reason myths of vegetation are always myths of the Underworld. The new aeon arises out of the Underworld. Journeys to hell always bear an astral character corresponding to the solar or lunar cycles, or to the phenomena of Venus (morning and evening star). Whether the myths of vegetation or the astral myths are the more ancient we cannot as yet decide from the records. Emphasis of the phenomena of vegetation (seed-time and harvest, summer and winter) appears to be characteristic of the Canaanite race.
THE PANTHEON—TAMMUZ
127
reons arise, on the other hand he belongs to Shamash, but, above all, to Ishtar, whose child, brother, and husband he is, (Geshtin-anna, “ the sister,"1 is a differentiation of the mother- wife) according to the phenomenon of the cycle represented by the respective myths. In like manner his identification with Ninib explains itself by the mythology of the cycle. Ninib represents the summer solstice point; according to IV. R. 38 he is god of the month of Tammuz. As such he may, on the other hand, be the destroyer of Tammuz (Ninib as boar).
The calendar is the source of the myths of Tammuz. According to one of the dirges 1 the child Tammuz lies “ as a child in a sinking ship"’ (“as a great one he plunges into the grain and lies there1' ). This is, in our opinion, a play upon the myth of the sacred chest, or ship, in which the youthful Year-god, persecuted by the hostile power, is exposed (see Exod. ii. upon the birth of Moses). Representing natural life endangered by death he is “ the shepherd,11 “ Lord of herds of cattle,11 Lord of the grains and of “ tree and plant11 growth. When Tammuz sinks at the solstice, “ the shepherd sits in desolation,11 and upon earth the death of vegetation, the cessation of generation, is mourned. But the depth of destruction is only reached when his mother (or sister) descends (winter season) to raise him up again. The Adapa text upon the journey to hell of Ishtar, with the conclusion of rituals, which describes the reawakening of Tammuz, gives a variant of the disappearance of Tammuz.
The Nabataean books of El-Maqrisi (Chwolsolni, ii. 604 if.) contain a version of this myth : Tammuz was the first to require a certain king to give divine honour to the seven planets and the twelve signs of the zodiac. This king killed him, but he came to life again after his execution. Then the king had him executed three times in a gruesome fashion, but he came to life after each execution, till the last, when he remained dead.2 . . . The Mandseans of Babylonia and Harran weep and lament 3 over Tammuz to the present day (i.e. tenth century A.D.) in the month of the same name, at one of their festivals which has reference to Tammuz, and they celebrate a great festival, which is specially kept by the women, who assemble themselves together, and weep and lament.
1 Zimmern, Sum. babyl. Tammuzliedcr, p. 20S.
- Therefore celebrated with or without Resurrection festival.
3   Upon the first day of Tammuz, the end of the text says. It also says there that they did not understand the meaning, but continued the same celebrations as their forefathers.
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BABYLONIAN RELIGION
Attar amongst the Arabs, Dusares in the cult of Petra,1 Tammun-Adonis amongst the Phoenicians, Greeks,2 and Attls amongst the Phrygians3 correspond to Tammuz. We will add a few particulars in regard to this group of myths. We learn more detail about the Tammuz cult amongst the Phoenicians through Lucian, cle Dea sijra, and by monuments at the source of the river of Adonis in Lebanon. We have reproduced in fig. 31, p. 99, the rock-relief at the source of the Adonis river,4 which annually turns red, described also by Macrobius, Saturn., i. 21. Renan, who in his Expedition m Phenicie, fig. 36, reproduces the relief from an inaccurate drawing, shows also another rock-relief in the neighbourhood representing the hunter Adonis-Tammuz with two hounds.
Macrobius, Sat., i. 21 : “Amongst the Assyrians or Phoenicians the goddess Venus (the upper hemisphere, whilst they call the lower half Proserpine) becomes a mourning goddess, because the sun, passing in the course of the year through the trwelve zodiacal signs, comes also into the lower hemisphere; for they consider six of the signs to be under and six to be above the world. When the sun is in the lower signs, and so the days are shortened, they say the goddess mourns, as though the sun were for a time dead and imprisoned by Proserpine,5 who represents the divinity of the under half of the circle, and of the antipodes,6 and they believe that Adonis is given back to Venus when the sun rises into the upper signs with increasing light and length of days But they say Adonis was killed by a boar because this beast represents winter.
. . . The mourning goddess is pictured at Lebanon with veiled head and an expression of grief; her left hand holds her cloak to her face so that she appears to be weeping.”
Lucian, de Dea syra, 9 • “ A stream rising in Mount Lebanon flows into the sea, and is called Adonis. Every year the Avaters
3   For Attar and Dusares, see p. S7, n. 1.
2   In Hellenic mythology the musical instruments were personified. Ababas takes his name from the flute used at funerals, abfibu ; Kinyras, father of Adonis, from the kinm'tr. The journey to hell of Eneas, like the fable of Orpheus and Eurydice, contains the oriental motif of the journey into the Underworld.
3   Macrobius, Saturnal., i. 21, knew the identity of Adonis, Attis, Osiris, and Homs as representative of the cycle.
4   The Arabians recognise the Tammuz motif in the traditions of Abraham. The river which at certain seasons turns to a red colour, and at the source of which in Lebanon is the sanctuary of the Mother-goddess mourning for Adonis, is called the Nahr Ibrahim.
5   Compare above, journey to hell of Ishtar, pp. 38, 121.
6   Note that Macrobius knew the earth to be a globe.
THE PANTHEON—TAMMUZ
129
turn blood-red at a certain season, and the sea far around is dyed red and gives the symbol of mourning to the people. They relate that at this season Adonis lies wounded upon Lebanon, and his blood flowing into the stream changes the colour of the water, hence its name.” Ib. 6: “ I saw in Byblos a great sanctuary of Aphrodite, in which mysteries in honour of Adonis were celebrated,
 
FIG. 48.—Death of Tammuz-Adonis (not an antique, see text).
 
FIG. 49.—Lamentation for Tammuz-Adonis (not an antique, see text).
with which I made myself acquainted. They relate that the misfortune with the boar happened in this neighbourhood, and they celebrate mysteries once every year in memory of Adonis, with general lamentation, smiting themselves upon the breast, and they bring offerings to the body and veil their heads. . , . Amongst the inhabitants of Byblos there are some who say that the Egyptian Osiris is buried in their land, and that the mysteries VOL. I.   9
130   BABYLONIAN RELIGION
and the lamentations are not for Adonis, but all in honour of Osiris.” 1
Figs. 48 and 40 represent the death of Adonis-Tammuz and the grief of Ishtar-Aphrodite. Vellay has brought forward these pictures as evidence of the ancient cult. They are taken from Montfaiujon’s Antiquite illusiree, and Vellay has reproduced them in all good faith as antique pictures.2 Montfaucon, who took them from Berger’s Thesaurus Brandenburgicus (1696), i. p. 202, states of fig. 48 that the original is in the collection of Brandenburg. The administration of the Royal Museums, in reply to my inquiry, state that there is nothing known of the whereabouts of the two specimens. Undoubtedly they are neither of them antique ; nevertheless we give the pictures because the artist has presented the myth very finely, as has the artist of the late Greek sarcophagus, fig. 29, p. 9?- Fig. 50 is of an Etruscan mirror; the second figure on the left represents, according to the marginal note, “ Atnnis ” ; alongside of him, Aphrodite.
The Phrygian and Lydian Attis is the variation of the Tammuz myth in Asia Minor. His complement here is “ the great Mother11 (Ivybele, fxeyaXq /uqnjp). Zeus, who takes the place of Mars-Ninib under Hellenistic influence (see fig. 13, p. 28), sends a boar, according to the Lydian myth, to kill Attis because he initiated the Lydians into the orgies of the great Mother.3 “ Therefore the Galatians of Lower Pessinus touch no pork.” The great Mother mourns for him and buries him, and there is a grave of Attis shown in Pessinus (comp, the graves of the gods, p. 96). The “ Orgies ” show that in Phrygia the reawakening of nature and the corresponding resurrection of Attis was celebrated as in the worship of Ishtar- Tannnuz. In Phrygia the fading away of physical life is intentionally emphasised. This is the signification of castration, which was here connected with the Attis celebrations; and the amputation of one breast amongst the Amazons, who were companions of the great Mother, is probably a counterpart.4
The cult migrated to Greece, as is shown by inscriptions
1   Comp. Landau, Beitrage, iv. 18 ff.
2   Vellay’s book must be used with great caution, but it offers a good collection of classical material.
3   So we are told by Pausanias, vii. 17,9.
4   Herodotus, iv. 76, mentions customs of Attis-worship, and Plutarch, de Is. et Osir., 69 ; also the astronomer Julius Firmicus Maternus, de errore profan. relig. (comp. B.N.T., 19).
THE PANTHEON—TAMMUZ
131
from the beginning of the second century B.C. (see Hepding,
l.c., 134:), and was introduced at the Palatine, Rome, in the year 201: B.C. by direction of the Sybilline Books (!); after the time of Claudius the festival was publicly celebrated in the second half of the month of March. In the time of mourning cnstus
 
FIG. 50.—Etruscan mirror. Aphrodite and Adonis, after Vellay, p. 68.
(abstinence) was required, and on the third day they shaved and cut themselves with knives. Then came the Parousia (Epiphany) of the god. On the 25th March the high priest, “full of the divinity,” announced Attis has returned, rejoice in his Parousia. Firmicus gives fuller detail of the ceremonies.1
1   Hepding is doubtful whether it refers to Attis or Osiris. They are consub- stantial. The relation of Daniascius in the Vita Isidori shows that the resurrection was celebrated, where it is said of the Hilary festival of the Mother of the Gods : 'iirep tSyAov ri]v t£"Ai8ov yzyovviav r)n<av <rwTt)pia.v.
132
BABYLONIAN RELIGION
The priest murmurs in a low voice:
dappeire pvarrai TOV 6eov (Ttcroxrpevov €<7T(U yap yp.LV iK TTOl'ODV (TOJTTjpLa.
Comfort ye, ye Initiates, in the deliverance of the God, for it shall be for you a deliverance from your distress.1
Since we have already repeatedly expressed the opinion that the Ancient-Oriental doctrine is the foundation of the Germanic myths also, and since we purpose in Chap. III. to deal with northern, that is, Germanic cosmogony, it may be allowed us to refer here to the myth of Bahlur. Fr. KaufFmann, Bahlur in My thus and Sage, Strasburg, 1902, presents the Baldur myth as a reflection of a celestial occurrence: life and death in the course of the year and in the cycle of the ages. “ The ancients speak of a universe or great year (mahayngam ; annus mcuvi- 7)ius; annus mujidanus), by the end of which the stars will have returned into the constellations where they were in the beginning of the ages. The great year begins with a deluge and ends with a conflagration of the universe.”2 This cosmic speculation passed early into Scandinavia also in the form of a prophecy in which the Baldur myth was made the central point. KaufFmann connects religious speculation with it: “ Baldur is the sacrifice which was to prevent the destruction of the present system, but the sacrifice of Baldur is in vain, and all life will be destroyed in one great sacrifice for sin at the twilight of the gods. Then comes the Golden Age, sacrificial death creates new life, and Baldur will return again.” Eminent Germanists have proved these conclusions to be wrong.3 Nevertheless, I believe that KaufFmann towards the end of his book is right in referring back the Baldur myth to the Ancient-Oriental doctrine.4 KaufFmann must also allow that Rudbeck, 1689, was not altogether wrong in connecting the Baldur myth with the result, ad soils circuit am
1   The same figure of speech is used in regard to the Redeemer in Gen. v. 29.
2   Compare the evidence of Berossus, pp. 70 f.
3   Heusler in D. Lit. Ztg., 1903, No. 8. Mogk in Literatnrblatt fur german, tt. roman. Philologie, 1905, No. 6.
4   Kaufifmann holds, “ It is not unlikely that the whole idea of a great company assembled round Odin in heaven sinking away in the great conflagration, as the stars fall from heaven, was brought to the Germans in a prehistoric age (!) from the East (!) and adopted by them.”
THE PANTHEON—TAMMUZ
133
annuwn luce omnia referenda esse, and that the “long forgotten ” Finn Magnusen. together with his followers E. G. Geijer and N. M. Petersen, were in the right direction giving a cosmic perspective to Rudbeck’s view and seeing in Baldur a prototvpe of the great universe year fulfilling its end in a universal conflagration. German mythology must be founded in certain points upon the wrongfully neglected researches of Jacob Grimm.
The Volve tell of ancient things in the Voluspa saga: Six Valkyries ride from heaven to earth. In the branches of a mighty tree grows the mistletoe, which becomes an arrow in the hand of Loki. F.-iog laments over her slain son. But Baldur will some day return to Walhalla. Then “ the land will bear fruit unsown ;1 all evil will cease.”
The fragments of Ulfr’s poem Husdrapa (about 975) relate to mythological pictures painted upon the walls of a new house built for a great man in Iceland, and which represent the combat of Heimdallr with Loki, the funeral celebrations of Baldur, etc. Ulfr was an adherent of the old faith. On the fragments relating to Baldur his funeral pile is prepared upon a ship. Odin himself appears accompanied by Valkyries and ravens. Freyr rides near upon a boar with golden bristles (!), Heimdallr upon a horse. The scenes may be completed out of the Edda of Snorres: Nanna, daughter of Nefr,'2 dies of grief and is laid upon the funeral pile. The giantess Hyrokin pushes the ship from the land, then Thor consecrates the funeral pile with his hammer. The gods, however, send a messenger to rescue Baldur out of the house of Hel.3
In a half strophe of the Rafns saga, dating about 1220, it is said : “Everything wept — then have I, wonderful as it may seem, undertaken to rescue Baldur from the Underworld ” ; and in a collection of sayings of the twelfth century we find:   . . . the
Underworld had swallowed up Baldur; all wept for him, mourning was made ready for him ; his story is so well known, why should I say much about it ? ”
Snorres’ Edda tells how Baldur, the good son of Odin, was slain on the wrestling ground, through Loki’s treachery, by the blind Hodur 4 with a branch from the mistletoe, which alone of all things in nature had sworn no oath to Frigg. All the gods wept bitterly.5
1   Comp. Zimmern, IC.A.T., 3rd ed., 330 ff., and B.N. 71, 31 ff., with this motif of the Golden Age.
- In Snorres’ Edda, Forseti is called the son of Baldur and Nanna.
3   For selections from Snorres’ account, see Kauffmann, pp. 30 ff.
4   In the Icelandic version, by Loki, is Hodur put in by Snorres?
5   Kauffmann was struck, and with reason, by the non-Germanic characteristic of the sacredness of tears in the northern myth. It is the lamentation for Tammuz.
134
BABYLONIAN RELIGION
Frigg asks who amongst them will ride into the Underworld to rescue Baldur. Hermodr, a brother of Baldur, rides nine nights through dark valleys to the Golden Bridge, guarded by a maiden. Northwards the way leads to the Underworld, the gate of which Hermodr’s horse leaps over. Baldur shall be released if with the Asa everything, living and dead, weeps for him. Hermodr returns home. Baldur gives him the ring Draupnir to carry to Odin, Nanna gives her kerchief for Frigg. The Asa send messengers to everything in existence calling upon them to weep for Baldur.1 “ Man and beast, earth and rock, all wood and metals wept for Baldur, as thou mayest have seen how all these things weep in frost and in heat” (!). Only one giantess refused: “He! keeps what she has.”
MARDUK OF BABYLON
The figure of Marduk of Babylon, fig. 33, as we find it expressed from the Hammurabi age onwards, is a creation of the priesthood, to give a religious sanction to Babylon’s claims to universal rulership. The complete system is personified in this figure. He seems originally to have been identical with Marduk of Eridu, but in historical times the two are represented by different ideograms and must not be confounded. Marduk of Eridu seems to have always borne solar characteristics, whilst Marduk of Babylon seems especially connected with Jupiter,2 as partner of Nabu (Borsippa), with Nergal (Ivutha), and with Ninib (see p. 102). A hymn says: “In the shining heavens (burummi ellfiti) is his glorious path.” We think it may be proved that the following characteristics were transferred to the Babylonian Marduk :—
1.   The functions of King of the gods. The epic Enuma elish gives him the most distinguished place amongst the gods. Fifty names were conferred upon him—that is, he embodies the complete cycle of nature throughout the year and the teon.
2.   From Inlil, Lord of the Zodiac, he takes the role of mushim shumdti, “ Decider of Fate,” and of bel matdti, “ Lord of Lands ”; these are titles given to Inlil, for example, in the con-
1   All life is dead, hence the mourning ; compare the journey to hell of Ishtar. The motif is not “ the redeeming power of the mother’s tears,” as Kauffmann puts k, pp. 53. 63.
2   For Marduk-Jupiter see Jensen, Kosmologie, pp. 134 f.
THE PANTHEON—MARDUK OF BABYLON 1S5
eluding paragraphs of the Hammurabi stele. In the epic of Creation in particular the place of Bel is given to him.1 Therefore he is also given the name Bel, which was originally only an epithet of Inlil, but then became a surname. IV. R. 40, No. 1 says of Marduk :
Bel, thy dwelling-place is Babylon,
Thy throne is Borsippa,
The wide Heaven is thy heart,
With thine eyes, Bel, beholdest thou all.
3.   He succeeds Ea in the role of Abkal ilcini (for example, Shurpu, IV. 77, VIII. 71), Wisest amongst the Gods. This is shown by the descriptive words in the code of Hammurabi. The cult of Marduk was then only in process of being established, and we find epithets applied to Ea which later distinguished Marduk of Babylon.
4.   The qualities of Marduk of Eridu, son of Ea (p. 106), are transferred to him, and the name of the temple Esagila is transferred from Eridu to Babylon. The decrees of destiny likewise originally lay in the control of the son of Ea. An invocation hymn to Marduk says :2
A god without whom the Fate of man is not decreed in the deeps of Ocean.
The exalted position of Demiurgos for Marduk of Babylon, as described in the epic Enuma elish, also has its foundation in Eridu, not, as commonly, but without grounds, accepted, being transferred to him from Inlil of Nippur. In the story of creation (see pp. 142 ff.) Marduk of Eridu is creator of the world and of mankind. Many of the hymns which glorify Marduk as son of Ea seem to have been transferred bodily to the tutelary god of Babylon, especially those referring to the merciful open-eared (p. 106) god who went about doing good, the saviour of mankind.
5.   Nebo (Nabu) of Borsippa also had to abdicate his ancient fame to Marduk of Babylon. In ages before the first dynasty Nebo played the part later given to Marduk. The Tables of Destiny, which after the combat with Tiamat were given to
1   So also in Isa. xlvi. I, and in the apocryphal book of Bel in Babylon.
2   See Hehn, No. 3, A.B., v.
136
BABYLONIAN RELIGION
Marduk, were earlier apportioned to Nebo, as they were to Anu and Bel. After the time of Hammurabi, Nebo however takes the lower rank of “ Writer of Destinies” in the Du-azag, the Dwelling of Fate. The foundation of this change lies perhaps in the calendar reform ; by the retrogression of the precession of the equinoxes (see p. 73) the sun has moved into Taurus, which belongs to Marduk-Jupiter,1 and Marduk takes the place of “prophet” and deliverer originally belonging to Nebo.2
Thus Marduk of Babylon became finally “ God of the Universe,” “ King of the Gods,” “King of Heaven and Earth,” “ Lord of Lords,” “ King of Kings.” In one of the hymns glorifying this Marduk the poet-priest rises to the thought:3
I will tell of thy greatness to the people
^   ^   from afar.
FIG. 51. — Quetzalcuatl.
After Seler, Cod. Vatic. The seven-storied temple of Marduk
0 J’   in Babylon was called E-temen-an-ki,
“ House of the Foundations of Heaven and Earth.” It is repeatedly said of it, “ Its summit shall reach to the heavens,” and it is the prototype of the Biblical “Tower of Babel”; see chapter on Tower.
On New Year’s festival, see p. 94 seq.
An improved naturalistic doctrine of deliverance connected itself with the figure of Marduk. He is “ the merciful one, who loves to awaken from death, the open-eared,” who hears the prayers of men. This doctrine of deliverance has developed in Babylonia right on into the Christian era, and still lives in
1   Marduk corresponds to Quetzalcuatl, God of the East, in the Mexican Tonalamatl; see fig. 51.
2   Comp. pp. 90, 137 f. In the article “ Nebo” in Roscher I have referred to the original precedence of Nebo, without having recognised the connections, as they have now been clearly stated by Winckler, for example, in B.F., iii. 277 ff. See also Zimmern, K.A.T., 3rd ed., p. 402, and comp. 399; he, however, erroneously takes Marduk and Nabu to be “possibly identical originally.”
3   King, Bab. Magic, 18.
 
THE PANTHEON—NEBO
137
the religion of the Mandaeans who exist to the present day in the swampy districts of the Euphrates and Tigris and on the frontiers of Persia, whose Redeemer-god, Man-da-de hajje or Hibil Ziwa, is identical with Marduk, Conqueror of the Monsters of Darkness.
To conclude, we give an extract from another hymn to Marduk of Babylon which surely belongs originally to Eridu and contains interesting religious thoughts :1
Marduk, thy name brings prosperity to man !
Marduk, great Lord, by thy supreme command,
May I be whole and well and so praise thy Godhead; As I desire, so may 1 attain it!
Put truth into my mouth !
Let good thoughts reign in my heart !
Satellite and guardian,2 inspire good ! my God, walk at my right hand, and at my left hand ; my shield, stand by my side !
MEBO
In the astral system Nebo represents the west, or winter half of the year, in the age of Taurus.3 His star is Mercury, which rules the west point of the zodiac according to the doctrine of Babylon, in opposition to Marduk-Jupiter.4 As we have already remarked, he played the part in earlier ages which, after the supremacy of Babylon, was taken by Marduk. Nebo-Mercury is the morning star which announces the new age; see p. 74. In poems of the wars with the Elamites preceding the age of Hammurabi, Nebo is called “ Guardian of
1   Hehn, Hymnen an Marduk, No. 13, A.B., v. ; see Zimmern, A.O., vii.
3, 16.
2   Probably two children of the gods, like Kettu and Mesharu, Right and Justice, who stand by the side of Shamash.
3   Therefore it is said of him, for instance, upon the sacred statue in Kelach, “The devastating, sublime child of Esazil (Temple corresponding to the Overworld, or summer half of the cycle), dweller in Ezida (Temple corresponding to the Underworld, or winter half of the cycle ; also called ‘ House of Night ’)?”
4   Comp. p. 29.
138
BABYLONIAN RELIGION
the World.1’1 In times when the Assyrians had reason to emphasise a political opposition to the Marduk hierarchy of
raised Nebo into prominence. So Adadnirari III. says:   “ Trust in
Nebo, trust not in another god ”; see fig. 52. Assurbanipal also very willingly favoured him unduly.2 And in modern Babylonia (Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar, Nabonidus), when they loved archaisms and wished to mark a new age, they always said “ Nabu and Marduk,” instead of the earlier “ Marduk and Nabu.”
The records also show that originally Nebo bore the Tables of Destiny, but in the age of Marduk he becomes only the Scribe of Destinies3 — the art of writing, transmitted to mankind, is ascribed to him (“ the wisdom of Nebo”), so making him nearly related to Ea-Oannes. As god of the winter half Nebo is also God of the Underworld and Guide of the Dead—the Babylonian Hermes. Bor- sippa, sister city to Babylon, is the
FIG. 52.—The so-called Nebo p}ace Gf worship of Nebo (see Isa. statue of Adadnirari III.   r   r   v
xlvi. 1). His temple was called
Ezida, also “House of Night” (see pp. 29, 137, n. 3), and the
temple tower E-ur-imin-an-ki, that is, “Temple of the seven
Mediators of Heaven and Earth,” the ruins of which are called
Birs by the natives, and Birs Nimrud by “Franks.”
Upon Nebo in cults other than Babylonian, see article on Nebo in R.P.Tk., 3rd ed.
1   Nabtipa-kid kish-skat is written in the text, Sp. 158 + Sp. ii. 962, Rev. Z. 25, translated by Pinches (Transact. of the Victoria lust., 1897, p. 89) ; comp. Hommel, Altisr. Uberl., 183. The time of the wars is very uncertain.
2   See the “ Liturgie auf Nebo ” in Roscher, Lexikon der Mythologie, iii., Sp. 16 ff., before mentioned.
3   P. 136. Pesikta, r. 96a, calls him “ Scribe of the Sun ” (E. Bischoff).
Babylon they willingly
 
THE PANTHEON—NEBO-NERGAL
139
In the Old Testament we meet with Nebo, besides in Isa. xlvi. 1, as the divine scribe, Ezek. ix. 2 f., in the name of the mountain Nebo in Dent, xxxii. 49 f., xxxiv. 1 and 5, and in the sacred city Nob. Probably a city of Nebo is also referred to in Numb, xxxii. 3, 38; Isa. xv. 2 ; Jer. xlviii. 1, 22 is Moabitish ; another (ins ’'ll!)), Ezr. ii. 29, x. 43; Neh. vii. 33.
NERGAL
According to the Babylonian theory of the manifestation of the divine power in cosmos and cycle, Nergal represents the Underworld, or lowest part of the cycle. In so far as he bears solar character he manifests himself in the winter sun, and in so far as he bears lunar character, in the waning moon. In so far as sun and moon in opposition represent Overworld and Underworld, he is identical with the sun (winter sun in the Underworld, winter solstice). His name signifies Ne-uru-gal, “ Lord of the great Dwelling-place,’' that is, of the realm of Death. He is also Lord of Plague and Pestilence. In the Amarna Letters, for example, the plague is called “ the hand of Nergal.” His place of worship was Kutha, which was perhaps the Babylonian city of the dead. The locality of the city is unknown ;1 it is always spoken of together with Babylon and Borsippa. The Underworld is directly spoken of as Kutha, and the Erish- kigal legends relate how Nergal is King of the Underworld.2 In the texts from the age of the Arsacidse, which have been repeatedly mentioned (pp. 29 f.), it is said:
On 18th Tammuz Nergal descends into the Underworld, on 28th Kislew he ascends again. Shamash and Nergal are one.
In an exorcism it is said :3
Thou shinest in the heavens, thy place is high;
Great art thou in the realm of Death, there is none that is like unto thee.
When Nergal becomes god of the summer sun it is because
1   It is usually taken to be Tel Ibrahim ; see Hommel, G.G.G., pp. 340 f.
2   Comp. “ Holle u. Paradies,” A.O., i. 3, 2nd ed.
3   Bdllenrucher, Gebete an Nergal, No. 1.
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BABYLONIAN RELIGION
of his change with Ninib, who, when in opposition at the summer solstice, is at the place in the universe belonging to Nergal.1 V. R. 48 says that in the Western lands Nergal is called “ Sarrapu,” burner, scorcher. This certainly relates chiefly to the sun, secondarily to fever. IV. R. 24, 54a he is clearly named Gibil, the “ Fire-god with Glowing Mouth.” Also his “ visage of fear ” is often spoken of. As god of the glowing sun Nergal appears represented by the lion, as Marduk is by the bull. In the description of the gods 2 Nergal may be meant by the following :
Horns of a bull, a hairy mane falls down his back (?); the face of a man and letu of a ... . wings .... his forefeet and body of a lion, which [rests] upon four feet.
This agrees with the colossal lions, placed upon door intrados, and which are called mr-(?)gallu in the time of Sargon and Sennacherib. Also one sees from the so-called Dibarra legends, in which the God of Pestilence, i.e. Nergal, changes himself into a lion, that the lion is Nergal’s beast. Amongst the four planets which are connected in the Babylonian system with the four corners of the world, Nergal is equivalent to Saturn, or, in the exchange of oppositions, to Mars.3
NINIB
According to Babylonian teaching, Ninib is the counterpart of Nergal. In so far as he bears solar character, he manifests divinity in the summer half of the cycle, especially in the summer solstice; in so far as he bears lunar character, in the growing moon. In so far as sun and moon in opposition represent Underworld and Overworld, he is identical with the moon (full moon at summer solstice). In the zodiac the fire-realm is his, through which all must pass (fire of purgatory !) in ascending
1   Also because Nergal, like Ninib, is God of War and of the Chase.
2   C. T., ix. I2i.
3   Later Saturn changes with Mars, see p. 26 ; the Mandaean lists of planets indicate Mars with and ‘vm; see article upon Nergal in R.P.Th., 3rd ed., where also are mentioned instances of Nergal spoken of outside Babylonia.
THE PANTHEON—NINIB
141
to the heaven of Anil.1 The phenomenon of meteoric showers2 probably aided their imagination in this. When the sun comes into Ninib’s realm (now August, formerly summer solstice) is the time of meteors. K. 128 says; “lighted fire, which burns the [. . . .].”
As qurad Han't, “ Hero-god ” and Celestial Huntsman (moon motif), Ninib is God of War and of Hunting. But just as Nergal changes place with Ninib, so does Ninib with Nergal. When it is said, “Thou speakest from the Arallu,” it may mean either the summit of the mountain of the world or the Underworld.3
In the story of the Flood there appear with Ann and Bel “their herald Ninib, and their guide Ennugi,” therefore the two planetary gods of misfortune : here Ennugi, contrary to Jensen’s opinion, may well be Nergal, notwithstanding Shurpu, iv. 82.

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Re: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST (sumer) I
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1   Compare the passages from Berossus, which mark the summer solstice point as the point of the fire-flood, pp. 69 f. ; and comp. p. 31. Whilst in Luke xvi. 26 Heaven and Hades are divided by a great gulf, I am told by E. Bischoff that in the second century A. D. the Rabbinistic view was that there is only one finger’s breadth between them, as between Heaven and Hell in the Koran. Hades certainly in many respects resembles purgatory. (Similarly, in Grimm’s Mdrchen, Heaven and Hades are close together, and also purgatory, “the place of bide-a- wee .... where good soldiers go.”) Still the old notion held its place, of a hell under the earth, a realm of death—the Sheol idea amplified.
- II. R. 49, Nos. 3 and 51 ; No. 2 says Kakkab DIR = ;/«&V ishati, “ the descent of fire.” This may be the ideogram for meteoric showers. But it seems as though here, line 41 ff., it is speaking of Kaimanu-Saturn, and that previously Nergal- Mars, the planet of red light, is meant.
3   Upon the identity of Ninib with Tammuz and, on the other hand, with the hostile power (Ninib = Ninshah as boar, who kills Tammuz), see pp. 96 and 125 ff. Compare further the legends of Amyntor (Mars-Ninib), who slays the boar of Adonis. ’A7KCUOS, one of the argonauts, is killed in July (summer solstice) by a boar; he was a vineyard keeper (motif of the New Age, see D.N. T., 31 ff.). According to Herod., vi. 134, sacrifices of swine were made to the rescuing Demeter (winter solstice).
CHAPTER III
NON-BIBLICAL COSMOGONIES
BABYLONIA
I.   A Babylonian History of the Creation 1
THE sacred house, the house of the gods, in a pure place (that is, suited for religious purpose), had not jet been made, 2 a reed had not budded forth, a tree had not been grown, 3a brick had not been laid, a foundation had not been built, 4a house had not been made, 5 a settlement had not been made, a throng did not exist, 6Niffer had not been made, E-kura had not been built (i.e. the sanctuary of Bel), 7 Erech had not been made, E-ana had not been made (i.e. the sanctuary of Anu !), s Apsu (“the ocean1’ that of Ea),2 had not been made, Eridu (the sanctuary of Ea) had not been built; 9 as for the sacred houses, the houses of the gods, their seats had not yet been made ; 10the whole of the lands were still tdmtu (sea, primeval chaos), n the solidity of the island was (still) a river of water (that is, there were no islands) : 12 then Eridu was made, E-sagila was
1   British Museum, 82-5-22, 1048, For comparison with the first chapter of Genesis this text is more important than the purely mythological story in the seven tablets of the epic Enurna elish. This text, interpreted and for the first time translated by Pinches in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1891, pp. 393 If., is a so-called “bilingual” one; it has been recently repeated in the C. 71, viii. 35 ffi It certainly descends from very ancient times, though we only possess the modern Babylonian copy. In the above analysis it is re-edited as a glorification of Marduk of Babylon. Zimmern, K.A.T., 3rd ed., p. 49S, under b, speaks of a “hymn” upon the Creation. It is evident from K. 71, pp. 98 f., where it is presented as the record upon which the legend of Creation Enuma elish is founded, that Winckler recognised the importance of the text.
2   Hammurabi Code, ii. 1 f., apsft — Eridu.
142
BABYLONIA
143
built (the kingdom of Ea), 13 E-sagila, where in the midst of the ocean the god Lugal-du-azaga dwelt (that is, Marduk of Eridu, according to the following and preceding passages); 14 [“ Babylon was made, E-sagila was completed11],1 15 the Anunnaki (this must be here a general term for the gods as children of Anu) were all made together, 16 the sacred city, the dwelling-place, the joy of their hearts, supremely he had proclaimed (that is, created). 17 Marduk bound together a foundation on the surface of the waters; ishe made masses of earth, and piled them together for the foundation (epirl ishpuk).2 So that the gods might dwell upon it in joy of heart, he created mankind ;3 21 Aruru created with him the race of man,4 22 beasts of the field and living creatures of the wilderness, 23 he made the Tigris and Euphrates, set them upon the earth (ashru).5 24 Well proclaimed he their name (tahish). 25 Grass (?), the plant of the meadow, reed and sumach trees he made, 26he made the verdure of the field, 27 the lands, the meadows, and the marsh. 2SThe wild cow, and her young, the calf, the sheep and her young, the lamb of the fold, 29 the meadows and the forests, 30the goat and the gazelle (?) .... it. 31 The Lord Marduk raised a platform upon the surface of the sea, 32 whilst he ... . made of reed and dust, 33 a .... he caused to be, 34 [reed] created he, wood created he, 35. . . . upon the earth (ashru) he created; 3G [he laid the brick], he laid the foundation, 37 [lie built a house], he built a settlement, he created communal life, [he built Niffer; he built E-kura, he built
1 This is a comment, introduced by the scribe possibly at a relatively early age, in order to transfer the Creation to Marduk of Babylon, as originally in the epic
Enuma elish, Marduk of Eridu, son of Ea, is meant (comp. pp. io6ff.). The comment has, up to the present, made difficulties, in many directions resulting in errors. Jastrow, in Bel of Babylon, 447, has recognised the glossatorial character of the passage.
3   Compare the description by Herodotus of the building of the walls of Babylon, Chap. XI. The continent arises as the island in the Tiber does in the Roman fable in Livy, and as in the Jewish fable, where Rome is built with reeds and clay mixed with water of the Euphrates ; see Grunbaum, “ Beitragezur vergleichenden Mythologie,” Z. D.M.G., xxxi. 1S3 ff.
3   Man therefore is created for the sake of the gods; it is precisely so in the Enuma elish. Plato, Symposium, xv., treats this view with irony.
4   For Aruru, see p. 1S2.
5   For Ashru, Celestial Earth (here Terrestrial Earth), see pp. 117, 1S0, and 250.
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Erech], he built £-ana .... (the text is broken off; the following lines would certainly have related the creation of the earthly Eridu with Esagila).
To understand the text note as follows :—First, universal chaos is described : there was as yet no heaven (line 1), nor any earth (line 2 ff), everything was still water. Especially was there no temple ; then the sanctuaries of the chief divine triad (Bel, Anu, and Ea) are mentioned (lines 6-8). Without further evidence Winckler is not right in taking line 6 ff. to mean the cosmic places; K.T., 98, n. 1. For what in line 6 ff. is not yet there (Nippur, Erech), is created at line 39 ff, and here the terrestrial dominion is cleai’ly meant, though the cosmic places are in the mind of the narrator and he knows that the temples are earthly embodiments of the divine kingdom ; comp. 57 f. This is shown at line 8 by the name apsit being used for the sanctuary of Ea, Eridu, comp, line 13, where this cosmic place is explicitly named : Esagila in apsti as dwelling-place of the demiurge. Line 1 ff may therefore be taken thus : there were as yet no dwellings of the gods and also no settlements of men. In the beginning all was “sea” (line 10, tdmtu, comp, iidmat, cnnn). In this Tehom the celestial world was next created : (l) Eridu with Esagila, the celestial realm of waters, line 12 f. ; out of these waters rose the celestial overworld, comp. p. 6, n. 1.   (2) The celestial kingdom of Ana, the
“sacred city” and “dwelling-place of the Anunnaki ” here probably meaning the children of Anu in general; line 15 f. (3) The celestial kingdom of Bel, the celestial earth, the zodiac (shupuk shame, pp. 9 ff ; compare the verb at line IS, ishpuk). For the comfort of the astral gods he created men. The creation of man, plants, and animals is proleptically related : line 31 ff. first the creation of the earth, which like the celestial earth arises by mixture of earth with reeds, solid land being built upon the waters with the mixture. Then follow, line 37 f., the earthly sacred cities.
It results from the character of such epic pieces prefacing exorcisms that they merely indicate facts, taking previous knowledge for granted ; inevitably therefore there is a want of clearness, which may perhaps also be ascribed to the exigencies of translation.
The building of cities is placed at the beginning of the world as in Genesis, in the story of Cain, builder of cities (Gen. iv. 17). In another text of Creation (170) sera and «/«, “desert” and “city,” are placed vis-a-vis.
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II.   The Seven Tablets of Creation, epic Enuma elish Tablet I
When the heavens above were not yet named, beneath the earth (cimmatum) not yet named by name,1 whilst Apsu and the co-ruling son and father Munimu (and) Tiamat, who bore them all, their water united in one—2 3
when a reed platform had not yet united itself and a reed bank had not yet arisen ;a when of the gods none was yet created, a name not named, a fate not yet appointed,4 the gods emerged in the midst of the .... 5 Lahmu and Lafyamu were created .... the lengths of time (?) were great ....
Anshar and Kishar were created .... the times were long- extended ....
Ann their son ....
Anshar Ann ....
And Anu ....
Ea, whose fathers, generator ....
We can partially supplement the last fragment from the De primis prweipiis (125) 6 of Damascius: “The Babylonians pass over the
1   That is to say, did not yet exist. Name = thing and person, as in Hebrew. The “name” of the deity is the most powerful form of exorcism; see B.N.T., pp. 104 ff. If the sorcerer learns the “name” he takes possession of the person. This is important for the comprehension of passages like Isa. xliii. 1, and most important for understanding the form of instructions for baptism. Possibly Ps. cxlvii. 4 may be considered in this light.
2   The passage is mutilated : in the text Mummu comes in the wrong line; comp. Stucken, Astralmythen, i. 57, M.V.A.G., 1902, p. 66, and comp, above, p. 8, n. 2. In fragments which have since come to light, Mummu is explicitly stated to be the son of Apsu, and Damascius gives evidence of the same. Tiamat is the wife of Apsu ; and Mummu ( = Kingu) begets the universe with his mother; comp. pp. 6 f., S9, n. 1. The rhapsody quoted above only hints this; comp. p. 144.
3   This passage, which has been always erroneously held to refer to the growth of trees and has been placed in connection with Gen. ii. 5, really means to say : no land had yet been formed upon the waters. This is incontrovertibly shown by line 17 f. of the text analysed above.
4   That is, there existed neither celestial nor terrestrial beings.
5   “ Of the sea” must be understood. Damascius says Tauthe (Tiamat) was held to be Mother of the Gods by the Babylonians. Comp, the text, p. 1S7, where Tiamat suckles animals. As in the text quoted above, the Demiurg creates heaven, earth, and mankind from Apsft, the ocean, so here the theogony consummates itself in Apsu.
6   Comp. p. 8.
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10
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great First Cause in silence; they hold, however, that there were two Original Principles, Tauthe and Apason (Tiamat and Apsu), and make Apason the mate of Tauthe, calling the latter Mother of the Gods. Their only son is Moymis (Mummu), which I take to mean the Spirit of the Universe, as he proceeds from the two elements. From him springs a new generation, Lache and Lachos (Lahrau and Lahamn) ; and then a third, Kissare and Assores (Ki-shar and An-shar). From these three proceed : Anos, Illinos, and Aos. The son of Aos and Dauke is Bel, whom they hold as sculptor of the ?world (Demiurgos).”
The following fragment relates how there arises strife in the world of gods.   Apsu and Tiainat and Mummu, son
and “ mate ” of Apsu, plan a rebellion against the newly arisen world. Tiamat, “ Mother of the Gods,” takes the lead. The cause of strife is “ the Way,” that is, the actions of the new world of gods. Ea interferes very decidedly ; it appears he “ slays ” (harabu) Apsu and binds Mummu.   Tiamat prepares herself for the final
struggle. She creates eleven monsters1 and gives to one of them, Kingu, who now stands beside her in place of Apsu, the Tablets of Fate.
At this point the story is taken up by Berossus in his legends of Creation.2 In passages about the combat they record only the rupture of Tiamat, and with that the acts of Creation come to a close.
Berossus says there was a time when all -was darkness and water, and therein arose wonderful and curiously shaped creatures. Men with two, and sometimes four, wings and two heads, some male and some female, and some with both male and female organs ; 3 also others, men with goats’ legs and horns, others with horses’
1   They are the eleven signs of the zodiac (comp. Scorpio-man, Fish-man, Ram). The twelfth is sometimes lost in the sun. Kingu is here Lord of the eleventh sign, as later Marduk.
2   According to Alexander Polyhistor in Eusebius, Chronic., i., ed. Schoene, 14 ff. ; Muller. Fragm. hist.gr., i. 497 f. Latest translation in K.T., 2nd ed., 100 f. ; K.A.T., 3rd ed., 488 f. Berossus was a priest of Marduk in Babylon under Antiochus Soter (2S1-262 B.C.).
3   Compare the astral-mythological meaning in Plato, Symposium, xiv. (F. Israel).
 
FIG. 53.—Dragon combat. Assyrian seal cylinder (Jasper).
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feet, and again others with the hind-parts of a horse and the forepart of a man, like Centaurs therefore. Also bulls with the head of a man and dogs with four bodies ending in a fish tail, and horses with dogs’ heads, men and beasts with heads and bodies of horses and fish tails, and other animals with mixed bodies of beasts. Besides these there were fish and creeping things and snakes and all kinds of wonderful animals with mixed bodies. Their pictures are to be seen in the temple of Beld Over them all reigned a woman named Omorska, which is in Chaldean thamie, in Greek signifying " sea ”   (OdsXaaaa), of the same numerical value as
ere\yv>].'2 When all was created Bel came and cut the woman in two and from one half made the earth and from the other half the heavens, destroying the beasts.
This is an allegory of nature.5 When all mat still primeval water and beasts lived therein, this god struck of his own head and the gods mixed the blood which f owed with earth and (so) formed man. This is why man has reason, and divine understanding. Bid Bel, who may be designated Zeus, divided the darkness through the middle and separated earth and heaven and so formed the universe. The beasts, however, could not. bear the light and perished.
When Bel saw the earth empty though (?) fruitful, he commanded one of the gods to decapitate him and to mix the flowing blood with earth and form men and beasts who would be able to bear the air. Bel also formed the constellations, as well as sun, moon, and the five planets. Related thus, according to Alexander (Polyhistor), by Berossus in the Babyloniana.
A
Tablet II. La reports this rebellion to Anshar. Neither Anu nor Ea can give any help, and Marduk takes upon himself the combat, demanding as prize of victory the right to rule over destiny; Fate (that is, the order of the universe) is to be ordered anew after his victory, and he himself will then govern, as the others have done hitherto. “ Nothing shall be changed of what I create, nothing shall be retrogressive; no command from my lips shall perish.”
It appears therefore that the universe of Apsu and Tiamat, the conduct of which is given into the hands of Kingu with the Tablets of Fate, is at enmity with, and opposes, "the Way,” the rule of 1
1   Temple of Merodach Esagila. Agum II. (1650 B.c.) presents the same picture. Figs. 28 and 58 show pictures from the gates of Babylon, which belong to the cycle of myths of Marduk.
- We therefore recognise the astral motif of Solar Lunar combat ; comp. p. 150.
s The passage printed in italics belongs to another aspect; it is the simplest way of showing the coherence. We get really two records. In that printed in italics the two parts, creation of man and creation of heaven and earth, must be transposed.
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the gods Lahmu-Lahamu, Anshar-Kishav, and Anu-Ea. The place of Kingu in the old universe is taken by Marduk in the new aeon following the conquest of Tiamat. Consequently, upon the last tablet and elsewhere the titles of honour are given him: “ He who pities the plight (?) of the imprisoned gods, he who destroyed the yoke of the gods, his enemies.” He is called Tu-tu, which is explained K., 2107, 9, as “Begetter of Gods, Renewer of God ” ; see Helm, A.B., v. 288.
Tablet III. Anshar announces by a messenger to the divine pair Lahmu and Lahamu, the rebellion of Tiamat and the offer of Marduk. They call an assembly of gods, and after a banquet Marduk is entrusted with the combat. The next
 
FIG. 54.—Dragon combat. Seal cylinder, comp. fig. 53.1
tablet says he shall, after victory, “receive the kingdom and reign over the infinite All.” The gods, his fathers, promise him the position of Bel, and at the banquet they invest him with the Tablets of Fate.
Tablet IV. Marduk proves the creative power of his word by making a garment2 disappear and again reappear, and then arms for the combat. He goes forth to meet Tiamat in a four- horse chariot, armed with bow, arrows, and quiver, with the “ weapon of god” in his right hand, with “lightning1’ and net.3 The chief weapon is called abubuV A host of winds follows
1   In the first German edition of the present work, p. 54, fig. 54, a reproduction was given of a seal cylinder in the author’s possession, representing a combat between a winged genius and two-winged dragons to right and left of him. Experts are doubtful of the genuineness of the cylinder ; in such cases it may be left an open question whether it is not an antique imitation used as an amulet.
2   We shall speak of the cosmic meaning later ; see pp. 177 f.
3   Comp. Ezek. xii. 13.
4   It is undoubtedly the strife between Light and Darkness, as Berossus also expressly presents it ; the motif of the solar-lunar combat is especially meant; see pp. 38 ff. and no ff. But abiibit is not “ light-flood,” as Zimmern, like Jensen,
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him. Ivingu and his partner are amazed. Tiamat stands forth with challenging words (!) Marduk rebukes their rebellion and says : “ Come, thou and I will fight together.'" When Tiamat heard this she became frenzied with rage, and then Marduk enclosed her in his net and slew' her, driving a wind into her throat and shooting an arrow into her body, and he “ cast down her corpse and stood upon it.” He made prisoners of the hostile gods,1 and bound the eleven monsters; he wrested the Tablets of Fate from Ivingu, and laid them upon his own breast. Then he cut the corpse of Tiamat in two, like a fish, and used it, as we may supply from Berossus, to build the universe.2
The half of her he raised up, and let it overshadow (?) the heaven,3
pushed a parku (properly speaking, bolt, i.c. the zodiac) 4 before, placed watchers 5 here,
her (the upper half) water not to let out,0 he commanded them.
The (just described) heaven founded (?) he as opposition to the Underworld (ashratum),
placed it over against the apsu (celestial ocean), the dwelling- place of Ea.7
holds. The water-flood, which without doubt is personified by Tiamat, is not in contrast to a light-flood, but, in the course of the ages, to a fire-flood ; see index, under “ f ire-flood,” and comp. p. 178.
1   See Isa. xxiv. 21 ff. Upon this motif comp. figs. 33, 46, and see p. 1S3, ii.
2   See n. 3. Much of this detail is very indefinite. We must remember we are dealing with a poem, not with a scientific statement. In one place Tiamat is Primeval Chaos, in another a part of the universe presented mythologically ; comp, pp. 179 f.
3   Astronomically this means : he placed Tiamat in the northern heaven ; in the mythological sense she is herself the northern heaven ; see n. 2, above.
4   Compare raqia‘, Gen. i., which divided the waters that were above from the waters that were beneath, and the pn (boundary), Ps. cxlviii. 6, which is placed, that the waters that are above may not pass beyond their limits. In Gen. vii. 11 the adubba (barrier) is taken away and the upper and under waters flow together.
5   These are the Zophasemim, the zodiacal signs of the new universe created by Marduk. In Zimmern, p. 496, the passage remains uninterpreted.
6   This does not refer to rain, but to the celestial ocean surrounding the zodiac.
7   Berossus says : Bel divided Tiamat in two, and made the earth out of one half and the heavens out of the other. This must be the meaning of the obscure lines here. Compare also the notice of the final hymn which says that Marduk built the tannUiif, a mythological name for “earth” (tanninu), as remarked by Fr. Hommel, G.G.G., pp. 85 and 86, n. I, reminiscent of the Monster of Chaos (comp. Numb, xvi., the rabble of Korah, “ the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up”). Comp, further Ps. Ixxiv. 13, “Thou didst divide the sea” (parallel: “ the heads of the Tanninim in the waters”).
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Then measured the Lord the form of the apsii
and erected as a grand building according to his pattern E-sharra,1
the grand building E-sharra, which he built as heaven,
Anu, Bel, and Ea he allowed to take their dwelling-places. ’
Tablet V. Creation of the celestial bodies, foundation of the “ comers of the world,” and course of the moon, see pp. 12, 30 f. ; and 113, where the passages concerning this are analysed (creation of plants and animals).
Tablet VI. begins with the creation of man ; see pp. 182 ff.
Tablet VII. extols Marduk, who receives the fifty names of honour; see pp. 31 and 134.
 
FIG. 55.—Dragon combat. Seal cylinder, Brit. Museum.
Hidden behind the myth upon which the poem is founded are astrological speculations and observations of nature. Tiamat is the water, that is to say, the winter region of the zodiac through which the sun annually passes (four signs in division by three, six in division by two, in opposition being the four or six signs of the summer region). Marduk fights with Tiamat. The end is the V- spring equinox, when Marduk, having bound the waters, again returns to the land. This natural phenomenon is the parallel to the celestial occurrence of the spring moon rescued from the dragon meeting the victorious spring sun ; comp. pp. 37 f. For this reason Berossus reckons that thalassa has the same numerical value as selenc ; see p. 147. The weapons (bow and arrows) indicate the sun motif in Marduk.
In the Deluge myths the mythological idea of a flood of
1   See Job xxxviii. 5: “Who laid the measures thereof (the earth), who hath stretched the line upon it?”
2   This Esharra, which includes the realms of Anu, Bel, and Ea, is the true Olympus. It is the seven-storied tower thought of as above the zodiac (comp, pp. 15 f.), the celestial harsag-kurkura.
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water replaces Tiamat. Marduk of Babylon appears here as Demiurgos, as in the history of Creation given at pp. 142 f.
It should be noted that in the epic the universe built bv Marduk has been preceded by an ?eon during which the world was peopled not with men but with gods, who were at strife together. Between the primeval universe and the world
 
FIG. 56.—Fragment of a seal cylinder in the collection of R. Stewart.
of man Marduk’s combat with the dragon takes place. The dragon in the north heaven1 corresponds to him, and his antithesis in the south heaven 2 is the water serpent. Another text, Rm. 282, seems to tell of a combat with this serpent. The combat with this monster, pictured in the heavens in Bel's realm, is fought by one of the gods, after others have manifested their
 
FIG. 57.—Snake combat. The so-called Williams seal cylinder, Brit. Museum.
powerlessness : and, as in the case of Tiamat, the victorious god receives the sovereignty. The episode is here separated from the creation of the world and placed in the historical heroic age, both men and cities being in existence before the fight. The fragment runs as follows : 3
1   Since the combat of Tiamat refers to the passage of the sun through the water region, naturally every celestial water-animal, hydra, draco, serpens, and cetus, may correspond to Tiamat.
2   We may conjecture that Kingu, who has disappeared from the fragments, played the same part in the Tiamat combat. Or is Kingu the fire-breathing dragon, who plays a great part along with the water-dragon (Tiamat), in the myth in all parts of the world ? Theoretically he should be looked for in the furthest north heaven.
3   Last edited by Hrozny, V.A.G., 1903, pp. 264 ff. Hrozny sees in Labbu a personification of the mist. This is quite inconceivable mythologically, and the “drawing upon the heavens” shows clearly that it is referring to an astral phenomenon.
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III.   The Combat with Labbu1
(Front) : Cities groaned, mankind .... mankind mourned [. . . .], upon their cry of woe .... not .... upon their roaring .... not .... who is mush\galhi\ ? 2 Is Tamtu (the sea) the musk\gaUu\ ?
Bel drew upon the heavens [the picture of Labbu] :3 His length is 50 miles, 1 mile [his head], gar his mouth, 1 gar . . . .,
1 gar the girth . . . .,
5 gar wide [....] a bird he [. . . .]
9 ells he trailed in the waters ....
[and] raised up his tail ....
All the gods of heaven ....
In heaven the gods bow before ....
to others .... of Sin (moon-god) .... the}’’ haste
“ Who will go and [kill] Labbu
Rescue the wide land ....
And exercise sovereignty . . . ? ”
“Go hence, Tishpak (Ninib),4 slay Labbu, deliver the land ....
And exercise sovereignty . . . ! ”
“ Thou hast given unto me, O Lord, the creation (?) of the river . . . .,
I know not .... of Labbu
(Back) : . . . . opened his mouth and [spoke] to . . . .,
“ Let clouds rise up, .... the tempest,
.... his seal before his face,
....(?) 5 and slay Labbu :
1   C.T., xiii. 33 f. We give the text in full because it illustrates the poetic passages of the combat with Rahab and Leviathan in the Old Testament.
2   This may be so supplemented as Hrozny suggests, according to a parallel passage. In the hymn to Ninib, II. R. 19, Ninib’s weapons are compared to the mushrushshu t&mtim, “ the raging (Jensen : red-gleaming) Sea Serpent,” and previously with the muslunahhu, the “Great Serpent” with “seven heads”; comp. Zimmern, K.A. 71, 3rd ed., 504, and see in Isa. xxx. 6; also comp. p. 154.
3   I interpret the three last lines as Zimmern does. The passages following show that Bel drew a picture of a serpent.
4   The scene is laid therefore at the north point of the universe ; see p. 151, n. 2, and comp. pp. 30 f.
5   uskamma, issakamma from nasdku ? In the epic of Nimrod the verb signifies “to bend” (the bow), in the Tiamat myth also it characterises the combat: issn/c mulmnlla. Possibly here it is also a combat terminal. Jensen, K. B., vi., and also Hrozny, interpret it “descend” (from heaven in cloud and storm), but it is not certain.
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And he let clouds rise up ... . the tempest . . his sea] before his face,
.... and slew Labbu.
3 years and 3 months day and [night] flows away the blood of Labbu   
IV
We may also note here, first the remarks in regard to the Creation in C.T., xvii., fig. 1 (see Meissner, MJ’.A.G., ].90t, 222 ff„), and fVcber Literatur, pp. .59 f.:
?‘'After Ann had [created the heavens], heaven created earth, earth created the rivers, the rivers created the pits, the slime created the serpent,” etc.,
the serpent appeared weeping before Ea, begging food and wine. Juice of the date palm and of the hashhur tree will not content him ; he must suck the teeth and marrow of men. Instructions for curing toothache are annexed.
V
K, 133, Rev. i. (Hrozny, M.F.A.G., 1903, 42 f.):
the King Anu, who created the Earth   
VI
The text, Berlin 13987, 24 ff. (Weissbach, Misze/leii, Taf. 12, 32), where the priest recites at the building of a temple :
When Anu had created heaven,
Ea created the ocean, his dwelling,
Ea pinched off clay in the ocean,
the god made bricks for repairing ....
made reed and wood (?) for foundation of the building .... the god created servants .... to finish the work of building .... he made mountains and seas for creatures of all kinds .... the god made goldsmiths, smiths, and jewellers ....
he made high priests of the great gods, to fulfil the laws, he made the king to establish .... he made men to [bring offerings] ....
.... Anu, Bel, Ea.
The “ Combat with the Dragon11 is often represented upon seal cylinders (figs. 54-59). It gave full scope for fancy, and it is not always possible to identify the pictures in detail with any particular form of the myth. How they portrayed the “ Dragon of Babylon ” with which Marduk fought, and
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NON-BIBLICAL COSMOGONIES
which is therefore Tiamat, Monster of Chaos, we now know from the excavations made in Babylon bv the German Orient- gesellschaft: it is a dragon-like monster with a snake’s head and two horns. The mixed creature therefore unites the ideas of snake and dragon. The enamel reliefs of the gate of Ishtar represent the monster walking (fig. 58), in the picture of Marduk belonging to the decoration of the
 
FIG. 58.—Dragon (mushrushshft) brick relief from the Ishtar gate, Babylon.
seat of a throne (fig. 33) it is lying down, as upon the “boundary stones” (figs. 2-5). Agumkakrime records that in the temple of Marduk in Babylon, near the picture of Marduk, he also placed the muslirushslui: this must mean the Monster of Chaos.1 In later times the Assyrians transferred the myth to their chief god Ashur. An inscription on a building of Sennacherib says that on the gate of an Assyrian temple called “House of the New Year Festival” (bit akiti) the combat is represented in ironwork (“ work of Ea, the smith
1   P. 151, n. 2.
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god ”): Ashur ride.s against Tiamat in the war-chariot carrying the same weapons as the epic ascribes to Marduk, accompanied bv other gods, on foot and in chariots.1 The well-known relief from Niinrud representing a combat with a winged3,'mouster (fig. 59), also probably relates to Ashur’s combat with one of the monsters of Ancient-Babylonian astral mythology.
 
Frc. 59.—Dragon combat. Relief from Nimrud-Kelac^}.
PHOENICIA 2
In his Preeparatio Evcmgelica, chap. x.s
Eusebius says, with regard to the Ancient Phoenician cosmogony transmitted, according to the statement of Philo of By hi os, by Sanchuniathon:—as primeval principle of the universe he places dark air, fertilised by the Spirit, or dark air and a slimy dark chaos ; these wrere boundless and infinite for long ages. But when the Spirit (Pneuma) flamed into love for his primeval principle and a connection ensued,4 Sanchuniathon says that this embrace was called Pothos (sexual instinct). This is the principle of the
1   See Zimmern, Keilinschriften and Bibel, p. 18, note. The text K. 1356 is intended, translated by Meissner and Rost, Die Baninschriften Sanheribs, pp. 101 f., but it is incorrectly interpreted in this passage.
2   Comp. Herder, “Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit” (Krit. Ansg. des Bibel Instituts, iii.), pp. 315 f.
3   It is certain that Philo of Byblos has drawn from an old Phoenician source and that the cosmogony is pure Phoenician (even if not of the authorship of David’s contemporary Sanchuniathon) in spite of the critical difficulties which are all set forth in Lukas, Grundbegriffe der Kosmogonien, pp. 139 fif. For the text see Sanchuniathonis fragmenta, ed. Orellius, Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs, 1826.
4   This may correspond to the Babylonian Mummu.
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creation of all. The Spirit did not know his creation (that is, he was not in conscious being), but from this embrace proceeded Mot; according to some that is mud, according to others a foul, watery mixture (slime), and from this was engendered the universe. There were, however, certain beings without consciousness; from them proceeded beings endowed with reason, who received the name of Zophascmin (a better reading is Zophesamim), that is to say, Watchers of the Heavens,1 and their form was that of an egg (the elliptical form of the zodiac?)2 and there shone forth Mot,'3 4 sun and moon, the stars and the great constellations.
Then it relates how living beings arose:
When the air had become suffused with light, there arose fire, water, and sea; winds, clouds, and great eruptions and floods of celestial waters. And after they wrere separated and torn away from their original places by the flaming of the sun, everything met together again in the air and crashing against each other produced thunder and lightning, and in these crashing thunderclaps awoke living beings, terrified by the noise, and so there rested upon the earth and in the sea masculine and feminine Life. It is recorded in the cosmogony and commentaries upon Tauthei how the understanding of it all illuminated his mind.
Eusebius adds that after he had explained the names of Notos and Boreas and the other winds he continues :—These were the
1   Comp. Winckler, A.O., iii. 2/32, pp. 26 f. In Diodoros, ii., the thirty are thirty-six decani, see p. 12, n. 2. Zimmern, K.A. T., 3rd ed., p. 629. misses the authentic evidence in the inscription. We find it in the Watchers, who, upon the IVth table of the Enuma elish, watch over the parkn ; see p. 149.
2   We must not instance this passage in favour of the idea of an Egg of the ivorld in Phoenician cosmogony. It is true that a cosmogony of the “ Sidonians,” dating back to Eudemos, but at variance with Philo, recorded by Damascius—de prim. prin.,c. 125—(Kopp’s edition, p. 3S5), speaks of an Egg which proceeded from primary matter when desire (n<f0os) had united itself with the nebulous element (’O/LU'XA?;). Also the Phoenician cosmogony according to Mochos, mentioned by Damascius, it., speaks of the Egg of the world : From AlOrip and ’ATip proceeded Ulomos, the intelligible rods ; from him again proceeded Chusoros, the intelligible dvrapus ; hereupon followed the Egg, which exploded and became Heaven and Earth. We meet with the Egg again in late Chinese and Japanese cosmogonies ; see p. 167.
3   Here also, therefore, as in Gen. i., light exists before the creation of sun and moon. The conception seems to be that light came into existence with the creation of the zodiac. In fact this Mot, like the Mot before-mentioned, is not clear to us.
4   Tauthe is later (see p. 157) described as the discoverer of the art of writing the history of the First Cause. It seems that the Egyptians called him Toot, the Alexandrians Toyt, the Greeks Hermes. He is Nebo. The records of the First Cause are the Tables of Fate, which before Marduk were in the hands of Nebo ; see pp. 50, 137.
PHOENICIA
157
first to bless the germs of the earth, they believed in the gods and bowed the knee before their Makers, they themselves, as well as their successors and their predecessors, and brought meat and drink offerings ”; and he adds : f‘ These [something before this must have been omittedJ were the root-thoughts of the prayer, corresponding to their weakness and their despondency. Then, so it is said, there proceeded from Kolpia = wind and his wife Bau, which many call Night, the mortal men named Aion and Protogonds. Aion took his nourishment from the trees; those generated by them were named Genos and Genea. These lived in Phoenicia, and as it was very hot, they lifted their hands to heaven, to the sun, holding him, so they say, to be sole Lord of Heaven, and they named him BeeisamenJ who is Lord of Heaven amongst the Phoenicians, amongst the Greeks, Zeus.”
In the presentation of the divine genealogies following this is another passage of interest:
“ From these (the Titans) are descended Amynos and Magos, who taught how to live in villages and tend herds; from them, Misor andSydyk,1 2thatis, The Honest and The Just, who discovered the use of salt; from Misor, Tavthe, who invented writing and recorded the history of the First Cause.”3
1   Aramaic form of the Phoenician Baal-samim, Hebrew O'OB’ fn.
2   Compare the Babylonian tables of ritual, and lists of gods, two children of Shamash : Kettu and Mesharu, Right and Judgment, represented in the Psalm poems as the pillars of the throne of Yahveh (Ps. lxxxix. 14), and appearing symbolised in the two pillars to right and left of the temple gate at Jerusalem ; Jachin and Boaz (1 Kings vii. 21 ; compare the oldest picture of the Temple in Riehm’s Handworterbuch, p. 1650), with which one may compare the two obelisks at the entrance of every Egyptian temple of the sun and the little Fhcenician temple reproduced in fig. 60. The ascent to the temple represented the zodiac. The pillars are east and west points (Marduk and Nebo), the two solstices, or north and south point according to the orientation. Also the two watchmen at the gate of the heaven of Anu in the Adapa myth, and Tammuz and Giszida, belong to this cycle of ideas ; see p. 126, n. 1.
3   See p. 156, n. 4.
 
F10. 60.—Clay model of a Phoenician temple (Louvre). Ohnefalsch-Richter. Die Bibel, Kypros und Homer, clx., 3rd ed.
158
NON-BIBLICAL COSMOGONIES
EGYPT
We have already repeatedly spoken of the identity of the Egyptian teaching with the system of the Ancient-Orient.1 The doctrine of On gives evidence of the universe divided into three parts; see fig. 1. Here, too, in theory celestial is like terrestrial. The “land” is a reflection of heaven. Hence the repetition of geographical names having a cosmic meaning in Upper and Lower Egypt. And it was because of this theory that the idea was held fast that the source of the Nile was at Elephantine (place of worship of Khnum, who corresponds to the Babylonian Ea) even in times long after Khartoum had been reached. But we find also a popular view which looked upon heaven as well as the Underworld as a reflection of the world, that is to say, of Egypt:2
1.   Earth; he. a country with water, islands, and canals, namely, Egypt.
2.   Heaven; this was represented like Egypt as a country with water, islands, and canals. There are no pictorial representations, but the texts of the Pyramids testify to this.
S.   The world of the dead as counterpart to the earthly world.
In other presentments, no doubt originally local, the dead are thought of as alive in heaven, and in others again as alive upon earth in the West, occasionally also in the North.
There is no text which gives a coherent account of the Creation. We find only scattered references.
The cosmogony is like the theogony. In the legends of the destruction of mankind (the so-called “ Cow Books'”), the Sun-god talks with Nun (Primeval Waters):
Most ancient God,
From whom I am derived !
Before this he has called upon all the gods who were with him in primeval time in the waters, Nun (!).
Further, ice find in Egypt a myth of a snake-combat
' Comp. pp. 4, 86, 92 ff. Fuller detail in my writings: “ Die Panbabylonisten ” ; “ Der Alte Orient und die Aegyptische Religion ” {/in Kampf uni den Alten Orient, IVehr und Streitsckriften, edited by A. Jeremias and H. Winckler, ist vol.), 2nd ed., 1907.
- Communicated by Professor G. Steindorff. Full detail is given by Wiedemann, “Religion of Egypt,” in Hastings’ Dictionary, Suppl. vol., 176 ff.
EGYPT
159
and nexc-buiU universe which only records in other words xchat the Babylonian myth tells of Marduk and the dragon and the Demiurg. The Theban Amon corresponds exactly in his being and works to Marduk of Babylon.
After the expulsion of the Hyksos Thebes became the capital of a united Egyptian kingdom, and as the priests of Babylon founded the claim of that city to universal rulership upon the record that Marduk was conqueror of the dragon and creator of the world, so the priests of Thebes appear to have done in the case of Amon. Everything which has been made clear from the texts of Amon1 is identical with the Marcluk doctrine. Like Marduk, the Babylonian king of gods, Amon is “of friendly heart to them that call upon him.” Anion-Re is the “ living lamp, shining forth from the celestial ocean.” It is said of Marduk: “ First-born of Ea (i.e. Ocean), like the Sun-god thou lightest the darkness of mankind.” Amon-Re is the “Bull of Heliopolis” as Marduk is the “ Bull of Babylon.” “ He combats Apopliis ” as Marduk does Tiamat, and like Re “his eye makes his enemies to fall,” which recalls the sun devouring the stars. “His hosts rejoice when they behold how the enemy (the serpent Apophis) is fallen, how his members are flayed with the knife, how the fire has devoured him .... the gods rejoice, the hosts of Re are glad.” As conquering Sun-god he became Creator, Preserver, and Nourisher of all. He built the world, like Marduk after his victory over Tiamat. “ He commanded, and the gods were made; he is the Father of Gods, it is he who made man and beast. ... It is he who made the green herb for the beasts and fruit for man; he made food for the fishes in the streams and for the birds under the heavens,” etc. In an Amon hymn from Cairo, transmitted from the time of the twentieth dynasty, but which certainly uses older material, it is said :
I. 5 f.: Highest of Gods, Lord of man, Father of Gods, who hast created man and beast, Lord of all that is, who hast created the Tree of Life, who hast made herb and fruit-trees to nourish the cattle.
1   Erman, Religion der Agypter. 62 f. ; comp. pp. 91 ff., above.
160   NON-BIBLICAL COSMOGONIES
II.   7: Hail to thee, who raised the Heavens and [founded ?] the earth.1
IV.   7 : Atum, who created man, who raised their kind (?) and made their life, who divides their colours, one from another.
VI.   3 : Man proceeded from his eyes and the gods from his mouth.
The Deity is always praised as Creator and Preserver of
everything in the world
 
of
however small (even vermin and mice).
What is here said of Am on is said elsewhere of Khnum or of Tlioth. The conceptions vary in Thebes, Heliopolis, and Memphis.
The “Great Nine” of On2 proceed from the Primeval Ocean as in all the tlieo- gonies and cosmogonies of the East. Earth-god Keb and Heaven - goddess Nut FIG. 6i.—The Egyptian god Khnum models embrace in the Primeval Wh"'- Fr°m Waters (comp. Mummu and Tiamat, pp. 6 f.) till Shu raises the Heaven-goddess ; see under n. 1, below.
Sun-god
Shu — Tefnet Keb Nut
To these are added Osiris (Moon) with Isis his sister-wife, and his hostile brother Set with his sister-goddess Nephtys.
1   The cosmic idea is represented thus (see fig. i) : The Earth-god lies upon his back, and the Heaven-goddess, upon whose body the stars are drawn, lies over him and is raised and supported by the Air-god Shu so that the Earth-god is enclosed between the tips of her fingers and the tips of her toes (the horizon) and her star-spangled body hangs vaulted over him. In some representations the Ship of the Sun floats upon the back of the Heaven-goddess.
2   Comp. Erman, loc. cit. p. 30. They correspond to a week of nine days. Upon 9, see p. 66.
IRAN AND PERSIA
161
The Great Nine ” correspond to a lesser nine: Horos, son of Isis, identical with Osiris1 and eight gods, who protect him from his enemies. For the triad Sun, Moon, Hathor-Isis, see p. 89. The creation of man is presented as the work of a potter, man being modelled upon a potter’s wheel.2
IRAN AND PERSIA
The theology of Zarathustra, dating from the sixth century B.C., is connected with a more ancient religion. This religion also, so far as it can be reconstructed from the Avestic literature, taught the doctrine of an evolution of worlds, completing itself in a combat against the Powers of Darkness. Zarathustra raises fire into prominence, his picture of the universe emphasising the North Kibla, the fire point,3 in opposition to Babylonia, where the south point, apsu, is emphasised as the point from whence the development of the universe proceeds (p. 33).4
The ancient Persian cosmogony5 can be reconstructed from the Avesta, which is the name of the Iranian sacred writings, signifying, perhaps, “ knowledge.”6 Zend is the translation into medieval Persian from the age of the Sassanids, and is identical with gnosis.7 In this name we meet with a funda-
1   Husband and son both. In the Babylonian mythology, mother and son generate the new world : see p. 7 and p. S9, n. 1.
2   See fig. 62. Eusebius, Prcep. ev., i. 12, mentions a similar picture.
3   Pp. 23 and 32. The doctrine of the Universal Conflagration proves that the Avestic teaching knew of the cycle of the world in connection with the zodiac ; see p. 163.
4   This perhaps throws light upon the stories of the Origin of things in the religion of Zarathustra. By analogy with other religious movements it would certainly show a reformatory contrast to the existing teaching. Was this existing teaching the Babylonian doctrine? Note the detestable role played by Babylon in the epic; see p. 164.
5   Upon the following compare Lehmann in Chantepie de la Sanssaye, 3rd ed., and Jackson in the Handbook 0/Iranian Philology. Its connection with the Ancient- Oriental doctrine is not known by either of them. Jackson does not satisfactorily separate ancient doctrines from later innovations.
6   Thus according to Haug (\J vid — to know). According to Justi, avesta = a/staka, “ metrical ” (book).
7   According to information given by Professor Dr Lindner. The usual interpretation of Zend-Avesta as “Tradition of Wisdom” is not correct. I am indebted to Dr Lindner’s information for the statements upon the Avestic teaching.
VOL. I.   11
162
NON-BIBLICAL COSMOGONIES
mental idea of Ancient-Oriental teaching; all knowledge is latent in the Origin of things, is of divine origin, and religion rests upon the transmission of and keeping uncorrupt this knowledge.
So far as we know it, the cosmogony of the Avesta says nothing about Primeval Chaos. The World of Light, created by Ahuramazda, is threatened by the World of Darkness, represented by Ahriman, as in the Babylonian cosmogony the world , of Anshar is threatened by Tiamat and Kingu. The World of Light is placed as an antithetic creation to the World of Darkness. Between the two is a void space (in the Avesta vayu, in the Pahlavi texts vde), which is the stage for the meeting and combat.
According to the most important work of the Pahlavi literature, the Bundehesh (i.e. First Creation), transmitted late, the teaching of which is founded upon old lost Avestic traditions, the combat completes itself in a series of ages. Upon the “infinite age11 follows “the ruling age of the long period,” twelve thousand years, which Ahuramazda has determined for the rule of the hostile powers, 4 x 3000 years. Before each thousand is placed a sign of the zodiac. This disposition of the ages cannot be located in the Avestic writings at present available. But Plutarch, Is. et Osiris, c. 47 (following Theo- pompus), gives evidence of it in Persia, i 1. Three thousand years of spiritual creation. During this ' time the pure spirits were created.1
2.   In the second three thousand years Ahuramazda creates the six Amshaspands, three on each side of him ; each one of the seven is accompanied by the triad Sun, Moon, and Tishtrya. They sit upon golden thrones, and in the calendar of the priests a month (double month ?) is sacred to each one, and one day of the month to each one (according to Plutarch there were also twenty-four “ others ” added to the six, therefore thirty spirits of the month). When the dedicated day and month fell simultaneously they held a festival day. The six datva2 3 are opposed
1 According to Jackson “ the heavenly prototypes.” A previous appearance of
Ahriman is driven back by the sacred word of Ahuramazda.
3   Asmodeus in the Book of Tobit ; i.e. Avestic aesma daeva, Demon of Fury.
IRAN AND PERSIA
163
to the Amshfi.spands, three on each side of Ahrinmn. Ahura- mazda also created (1) heaven. (2) water, (3) earth, (4) I -Replants, (5) animals, (6) mankind. He was helped by the ' Fravashis, beings belonging to the original spiritual creation, and the government of the world was divided between them. ^
3.   In the third period of three thousand years Ahriman
appeared. He destroyed everything, killed the beasts which ^
were alone upon the earth before the creation of man,1 and
Primeval Man. From their seed, cleansed and fertilised by the
action of the sun's light, arose, after their death, animal and
human life. The infernal legions which accompany Ahriman
are then vanquished bv the heavenly spirits, and this is the
Golden Age. Ahuramazda charges Yima2 to guard and to © © ©
teach the sacred doctrine. He refuses, not being capable of it, and then he is commissioned to guard the creatures.3 This is the age of undecided strife, and in this period the Deluge is placed. Yima is charged to rescue all that can be rescued. He hides the rescued in a walled-in place, not in a ship.4
4.   In the fourth period of three thousand years Zarathustra 5 appears and brings the divine teaching. Now the Deliverer is expected, and every thousand years a new prophet is to come.
At the end of all things all the dead shall arise, Ahuramazda shall conquer Ahriman, and out of the Universal Conflagration a new, clean world shall proceed. The metals in the earth shall be melted, hell shall be destroyed by fire. Nothing shall remain of Ahriman, there shall be no more sin of which he
1   The Bull of Minos slain by Theseus is explained by this. Upon the First Man and the Aboriginal Bull and their myths, comp. Hiising in Goll’s MyIhologie,
8th ed.. p. 310 f. The First Man lived upon the Mountain of the Gods (later = Damaevand), which stands in the sea and upon which the Tree of the world grows ; see p. 211.
2   Yima is Lord of Paradise ; see p. 230. According to Hiising, loc. cit., 313, he corresponds to the moon, which is not dead after dying.
3   Vendidad, ii., see Geldner’s translation Ztschr. ; further, compare Sprachfor- schung, xxv. 181 f. Vendidad is a part of the Avesta. Ancient ritual, beginning with cosmological chapters, and ending with eschatological observations.
4   See Lindner in the Fesigrusz Jiir Roth, 213 ff. ; Oldenberg, Rel. der Veda,
276, refers this tradition also back to Babylon, contrary to Lindner.
5   He corresponds to the First Man. and is therefore the new Adam. For this reason the myth of Persecution is transferred to him ; see Hiising, loc. at., 311.
164   NON-BIBLICAL COSMOGONIES
has been the cause. The wicked also are saved in the great apokatastasis.
Thus, therefore, the cosmogony and the teaching about the ages of the universe correspond to the doctrine of the cycle of the universe. When the cycle of the universe arrives at the fire region comes the regeneration of the world; comp. pp. 70 f. But the combat also is an astral connection. On Ah rim aids side stand seven evil planets.1 According to the Bundehesh the evil stars clash together with many demons in the heavenly spheres. Ahurainazda brings the seven under his dominion and gives them neio names, his own amongst them. And then they are held in restraint by the good stars, the Watchers of heaven (amongst them Tishtrva), and they all help to guard the door of the Underworld.2 3 Along with this purely astral teaching we frequently find the combat presented as a fight with a dragon. The Achremenid sculptures picture it. One of the oldest myths preserved in the Avesta (in the sacrificial songs of Yasht) describes the combat of A tar (fire) with Azlii Dahaka, the dragon, out of whose shoulders grow two snakes. Elsewhere the fight with the dragon is undertaken by Tishtrya. He appears in all manner of forms, as a beautiful youth, as a white ox with golden horns, as a white horse. In this form he fights with the black horse, the demon Apaosha. The object of the fight is the Lake Vourukasha, cosmic source of all floods ; Ahuramazda helps, that the streams may flow over the earth.
The snake monster Azhi Dahaka is a son of Ahriman and Uda. In the epic he is conquered by Feridun (the Avestic Thraetona), who chains him under the mountain Damftvand, after he had reigned in Babylon (!)s for one thousand years. At the end of the world he will again get free, finally to be destroyed by Keresaspa, who was killed and has come to life again. In another myth the “ horned dragon11 Azhi Srvara is
1   Thus Jackson. The cycle of the seven planets is therefore divided in two halves. Each half of the universe has seven planets (step-tower ascending and descending according to “ Babylonian” presentment).
2   How clearly the meaning of the myth is shown here: Cycle through day and night, summer and winter, year of the universe.
3   In the Avesta bawri is the dwelling-place of the Dahaki (Yasht, v. 29). Justi interprets baivri as Babylon (erroneously, according to Dr Lindner).
INDIA
165
killed by Iveresaspa. In a third he kills the horned monster with stone hands, Snavidhka, who had boastingly declared that he would destroy heaven and earth, and even Ahuramazda and Ahriman. Keresaspa reappears in the Persian national epic Shahnameh as the mystic king and deliverer Rustem, whose horse (see Zech. vi. 1 ff.) represents the ages of the world.
INDIA
The tenth book of the Rigveda, dating possibly from the oldest Brahman age, contains 129 hymns upon creation.1
Then there was nothing that is, neither anything that is not, neither the air, nor the heavens beyond it. Who has so mightily 3^ veiled all this ? Where, in whose care were the Waters, the fathomless abyss ?
Then there was neither death, nor immortality, neither day nor night. Solitary and alone brooded the One (Tad, This), by himself alone, unmoved by any wind ; beside him there was no other.
Darkness was there, covered with darkness was this All in the j beginning of infinite Water. The Power shrouded in empty Space j was brought forth by the might of the brooding Contemplation (Tapas).
First to come into being was the Will (kdma), original seed of the Spirit was he; the wise discovered the relation of that which is to that which is not, after they had sought after it in their hearts.
The cord was drawn from one to the other by them, whether it were below or whether it were above. There were fertilising Beings, there was Night, spontaneous being upon one side, effort upon the other side.
Who may know it in truth, who can tell it, from whence, or where was born this creation ? Hence are come the gods sent by This (Tad), but who knows from whence he himself is come ?
He, upon whom this creation rests, who has created or not created, who is their upholder in farthest space, only he is it who knows it, or also he knows it not.
Hymn x. 190 records how the world evolved from out of Tapas (brooding Contemplation):
From the brooding Tapas proceeded the Law (Ritam) and Truth (Satyam): thereupon arose Night and surging sea. From the surging sea was born Time (Samoatsara), which established Day and Night, and which has power over all that the eye rests upon.
In this order the Creator built sun and moon, heaven and earth, air and the realm of Ether.
1 Lukas, Kosmogonien, 66 ff., and the works cited there.
166
NON-BIBLICAL COSMOGONIES
Hymn x. 72 presents a theogony which recalls the emanations of the Babylonian primeval world :
In the time of the first gods that which is was bom from that which is not. From this woman’s travail arose heaven’s deep and starry space. The world arose from this travail, and from the world arose the starry space.
This woman in travail is Aditi; she generates Adityas in the Primeval Waters. Tad differentiates himself into both these. Amongst the seven Adityas who carry on the government of the world the highest is Varuna. Another is his friend Mithra. Here again the astral doctrine shows plainly. Varuna is the moon as summus dens, Mithra the sun;1 the remaining five Adityas are the five planets.
Dawn appears as the maiden Ushas, pursued by the youthful Sun-god.
The twins Ashvin, light- and health-bringing, who draw the chariot of the sun but are never both to be seen at the same time, are the Morning and the Evening Star.
Rigveda, x. 90, records the evolution of the world :—From the primeval being Purusha arose beasts, woods and villages, the songs of Rik and Saman, Metra and Yajus; horses, beasts with two rows of teeth, calves, goats and sheep. From his mouth came the Brahmans, from his arms the warriors, from his thighs the peasants, from his feet the Sudras; from his spirit came the moon, from his eyes the sun, from his mouth Indra and Agni, from his breath Yaju ; from his navel came the air, from his head the heavens, from his feet the earth, from his ears the cardinal points.
CHINA
According to the Chinese poet Kith-Yuan (died 294 B.C.),2 who used sculptures and traditions of South China, there was “ in the beginning no form above or below,11 there were only “pictures11 (!). In the Shan-hai-King he unites traditions about the making of the river courses into canals with cosmological speculations. A winged dragon is the sign of the river courses; the rivers themselves appear as nine-headed dragons,
1   See Oldenberg, Religion der Veden, 185 ff. ; comp. p. 30.
2   I am indebted to Trofessor Conrady for these facts.
JAPAN
167
slain bv Yu, who erected a building from their blood. The same poet harps upon a realm of giants, about which Lich-tze (fourth-fifth century B.C.) gives fuller detail. A primeval emperor fights with Kung-Kung, who pushes against the Puh-tschon mountain (Pillar of Heaven), hews down the columns of heaven, and cuts the bands of the earth. Therefore the stars How westward, and the rivers eastward, until the serpent-bodied Empress Ivii-Kna repairs the damage with “five-coloured stones” (l)1
The Y-King explains the sixty-four line signs of the mythical Fohi. The primeval antithesis in the world is expressed in the
complete light line   and in the broken dark line —=— " ? .
- represents pure Yang, Heaven, the all-stimulating and all- enlightening world of light. Opposed to this is — ?   ,
pure YTin, the dark, pregnant Earth. The lowest Yang line is expressed by the water dragon. Heaven is the father, Earth is mother. By the mingling of the two arise the “ thousand things.'” But both these are Matter ; Reason is represented by man alone, especially by the emperor, who rules for heaven, and upholds the unchangeable order of the world, equilibrium in multiplicity.2 Later myths, probably under Indian influence, speak much of the Egg of the world.
JAPAN
The cosmology of the ancient Japanese religion also tells of the Egg of the world : “ In old times, when heaven and earth were not yet separated, when gloom (Ju) and brightness (Joo) were not yet divided, there was Tai-Kijok, primeval aether : it was a mixture, like an egg. The brightness floated, being lighter, outward and upward and became heaven ; the heavy gloom sank away downwards as water and became earth.”3
The chief record of the Shinto religion is Ivojiki, codified in 712 A.O. “according to ancient traditions.” It teaches the “way of the gods”4 which Kotaku (645-654) rejected when he accepted the teaching of Buddha. It refers the present
1   A later saga, perhaps coming from South China, records the story of Pak-Kii, who moulds the world out of chaos, or from whose body the world is made.
2   See Wuttke, Kosmogonie dcr heidniseken Jrolker, 16 ff.
3   See Wuttke, loc. cit. ; Lange in Chantepie de la Sanssayc, Kel. Gesch, 3rd ed.
4   Upon the conception “ way,” see p. 146.
168
NON-BIBLICAL COSMOGONIES
world back to the twins Xzanagi and Izanami.1 At the bidding of the gods these two, standing upon the Bridge of Heaven (!), dipped a spear made of precious stones into the muddy waters of the chaotic Primeval Flood, and from the drops of water falling from the spear arose the first island. At the birth of the Fire-god, Izanami, daughter of the sun, dies, descends into the Underworld (Yomi), whither Izanagi follows her, in order to bring her back to the Ovenvorld.2 The “ hateful gods ” of the Underworld persecute him, and, to save himself, he throws his head-dress, then a comb, and lastly, three peaches behind him.3 When he washes himself from the stains of the Underworld there arises from the washing of his eyes, the sun (feminine) and moon, from the washing of his nose, Susanos. From Susanos the Emperors are descended.
ETRURIA
We find the following in Suidas, s.v. Tvppijvla, as Tuscan 1 teaching, gathered from the Tuscan history-book :
“The Demiurg ordained twelve thousand years of life for the world, and placed each thousand under the dominion of a sign of the zodiac. Creation continued during six thousand, and the duration will be six thousand. In the first, heaven and earth, in the second the firmament, in the third sea and waters, then the two great lights, the souls of beasts, and lastly man was created.’’'’
In Otfried Midler, Die Etrusker, ii. 38 (edited by Deecke), it is generally assumed that the Tuscan doctrine is founded upon the Biblical story of Creation. This conclusion was tenable so long as the other Ancient-Oriental records were
1   The double-peaked mountain (moon and sun) in Tokio is consecrated to them.
2   P. 38, n. I.
3   We find traces of this motif in all parts of the world. It gives a fundamental blow to the thesis of an elemental idea (comp. p. 4). We may also add the reference in the Papyrus d’Orbinay, where, in the story of the brothers, there is evidence of the same motif.
4   Latins and Umbrians call the people who settled in Etruria Tuscans. Greeks call them Tyrsenian or Tyrrhenian. For the inscriptions of Lemnos, comp. Torp, Die vorgriechische Inschrift von Lemnos, Christiania, 1903; also Hommel, G.G.G., 240.
ETRURIA
169
unknown. The Etruscans were survivors of a seafaring people, and came from Western Asia. The relationship with Biblical cosmogony, which is established by its agreement with the ages of the world and the zodiacal cycle, has its foundation here also in the common doctrines of the origin of the world and of the ages of the world. The duodecimal icons of the East are divided into millenniums, as in the teaching of Zoroaster; see
p. 162.
The Etruscans show traces of the Ancient-Oriental wisdom in other directions also. The Sibylline oracles,l burnt in 83 r,.c., which correspond to the Books of Fate (see pp. 49 ff.), showed the form of ancient Babylonian Omina : u when this happens,11
 
FIG. 62.—Theophany. From a gold ring found FIG. 63.—Zeus, nourished by the goat at Knossos.   Amalthea (?). Found at Knossos,
fourteenth century B.c.
etc., in opposition to the newer productions (comp. Ivautzsch, Pseudeyigr., ii. p. ITS, hg. 2). They may be traced back to an Etruscan origin. In like manner the systematic emphasis of the number twelve (and the sescenties adopted by the Romans) corresponds to the Ancient-Oriental system. In the history of the Roman wars twelve states are spoken of into which Etruria was divided; likewise in the country of the Po and in the Etruscan campaigns. But historical research strives in vain to count twelve federal members, there were always more; see Miiller-Deecke, i. 320. Also the founder of the twelve towns, in Etruria proper as in the country of the Po, named Tarchon, son and brother of Tyrrlienos, eponymous hero of the “ urbs
1 The Leipzig Dissertation (1903), by Wiilker, Die geschichtliche Entivickelnng des Prodigiemvesens bei den Romern, offers new material in regard to this subject without laying any stress upon it.
170
NON-BIBLICAL COSMOGONIES
florentissima 11 of the Tarquins, is a mythical figure of Oriental character. Finally we may here note the Etruscan soothsaying from sheep's liver which is related to the Babylonian custom.1
The evidence here given in regard to the Etruscans1 knowledge of Ancient-Oriental teaching naturally includes als

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Re: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST (sumer) I
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o the other civilisations along the Mediterranean Sea. Here only the discoveries in Knossos and Ilion are referred to, in regard to which fig. 21 (pole of the world) and figs. 62 and 63 suggest questions to which we shall recur in another passage. The “ Babylonian11 character of these presentments has been treated by Milani, Bibbici prebabelica (Studi religiosi, vol. vi., 1906).
NORTHERN COSMOGONY
From the songs of the Edda, and the Edda drawn from these by Snorre Sturluson, we gather the following presentment:
In the Vbluspa the Volve teach mankind, Heiradal’s consecrated race, about primeval ages: In the beginning there was neither sand nor sea, nor cold wave, neither earth nor heaven, only Ginnungagap (“the yawning chasm,11 primeval chaos), nowhere any grass, till the sons of Bur raised the crust of the earth out of the sea and made Midgard, the world inhabited by man.
I require obedience from the sacred races, from Heimdal’s children, high and low ;
Father Odin wishes it, so I will relate
the stories of the old time, from earliest remembrance.
To the ancestral giants my memory goes back, who before the ages begot me ;
nine worlds do I know, nine spaces of the tree of the world, which is rooted deep in the midst of the earth.
It was in past ages, when Ymir lived :
There was then no gravel, nor sea, nor cold wave; no earth was there, nor heaven above, only yawning abyss, but grass nowhere.
1 Comp. fig. 63 with Ezek. xxi. 21 ; and Zimmern, Bcitr , S4, K.A.T., 3rded., 605; upon the Etruscan liver, see Boissier, Note sur ttn document babyl., Geneve, 1901 ; according to Boissier the first syllable of the word haruspex has for root the Babylonian Har, liver. Hittite clay livers inscribed with cuneiform characters were discovered by H. Winckler in Bazhazkoi. For full particulars upon this subject, see Religion Babyloniens mid Assyrien, Jastrow.
NORTHERN COSMOGONY
171
Then lifted up Bur’s sons the land and created the beautiful Midgard. from the south the sun lighted the ground, then grew green plants upon the ground.
The sun from the south, accompanied by the moon, touched with right hand the edge of heaven ; the sun knew not where she dwelt, the moon knew not what power he had, the stars knew not what places they had.
Then went all the gods to seats, the sacred rulers, and took counsel : they named the night, new moon and full moon, morning and evening, mid-day and vesper, all the times for the counting of the years.
In the north of Ginnungagap it was icy cold, in the south it was hot. In the north was Niflheim and the spring Hvergelmir, from which flowed twelve rivers of water and mist. In the south was Muspellsheim, the bright, warm place. By the intermingling of the two arose the giant Ymir. From Ymir comes the race of giants (those of the heroic age preceding the flood!) From the sweat under his left arm there arose a pair of giants, and his feet generated the six-headed giant Thrudgelmir. From the dripping frost there arose also the cow Adumbla.1 Four streams of milk from her udders nourished Ymir. She herself was nourished by licking the salt blocks of ice.2 As she licked, there began to appear the hair of a man, the second day the head appeared, and the third day the whole man. His name was Buri; he was the father of Bur, who took for his wife Bestla, daughter of the giants, and by her had three sons—Odin, Wili, and We.
This triad of Bur’s sons killed Ymir, drowning the Frost- giants in his blood. Only Bergelmir, son of the six-headed Thrudgelmir, escaped3 in a boat.
The sons of Bur made the world out of Ymir’s flesh :
1   Compare with this the Mother-goddess, p. 117 : the interpretation as cloud, spreading moisture and fertility, corresponds to a later poetic construction, it is not the original meaning of the myth.
2   According to the Northern conception salt is the source of all spiritual life.
3   Compare the Hathor myth in the Egyptian Cozu-Book, Chap. IX.
172
NON-BIBLICAL COSMOGONIES
From Ymir’s flesh was the world created, from the blood the surging sea,
the mountains from the bones, the trees from the hair, from the skull the shimmering roof of heaven.
But from his eyelashes the wise gods made Midgard for the race of man ;
from the brains finally are all the cruel storm-clouds made.
In this cosmogony and the teaching connected with it in regard to the ages of the world, the dragon-fight, and the renewal of the world, we have the Ancient-Oriental doctrine feature for feature in a peculiarly nationalised form. E. H. Meyer, 434 ff., assumes the influence of antique scholarship: he sees in the Wala the Sophia of Alexandrian Judaism; the giant Thrudgelmir as coming from the Orphite teaching; and Plato’s Timet;us as also having an influence. Mogk, in Gemumische Mytliologie, 147 ff., rightly rejects this opinion. It might also be assumed that the above-mentioned sources go back to the Ancient-Oriental teaching. Golther, p. 518, prefers an independent, unconnected origin, but he reverts to the old theory when (p. 531) he asserts the Tree of the world Yggdrasil is an imitation of the Christian Tree of the Cross. In another passage Golther is upon the right track when he inclines to the idea of “ borrowing ” (more correctly, migration of the teaching). He says, p. 502 : “ When likenesses are established in a connected succession of acts of creation, rich in material and full of meaning, when details springing from an artistic, arbitrary line of thought agree, then the acceptance of the idea of borrowing easily suggests itself.” From Golther’s very instructive introduction one may see that Germanic mythology, antecedent to Jacob Grimm, was on the right track even before Ancient-Oriental material was open to study. The assumption of Biblical influence must be taken with much greater caution. That could only account for isolated features. According to Meyer, 434 ff., the whole cosmogony is a new poem of the Biblical story of Creation.1 We find the Ancient- Oriental teaching also in Frankish-Gennanic mythology. We have already alluded to the divine triad (pp. S6 f.) about which Caesar and Tacitus are not opposed to each other, and we shall bring forward further evidence under Creation of man and Tree of the world (see index).
The Wessobrunner prayer (eighth or ninth century A.D.) begins in Sibylline form with the fragment of a cosmogony:
1   For the sources and for a German translation, see Golther, Handb. der germ. Myth., 517. It is therefore the post-diluvian world. It corresponds to the doctrine that the Flood is a parallel to Primeval Chaos, and from it a new world arises. For further detail, see chapter on Flood. In the description of Creation above, from the Voluspa, the ceons are confused.
NORTHERN COSMOGONY
178
I perceived this as the highest wisdom of the living. When there was neither earth, nor heaven above, when there was neither tree nor mountain, when the sun shone not, neither the moon gave light, when there was no sea, neither any boundary nor limit, there was already the one Almighty God, gentlest of men, there was with him already the host of divine spirits.
After the evidence given here of a doctrine of the evolution of the world migrating throughout the world, one can scarcely feel inclined to agree with Wackernagel, who holds that the prayer is the beginning of a translation of the first chapter of Genesis, though it certainly is christianised in the sense of belief in the one Almighty God and in its agreement with the Biblical story. Also it is not impossible that medieval pictures of the stories of Creation, influenced in their turn from the East, lent material. Lucas, l.c., rightly includes the prayer in the Edda cosmogonies, and MtillenhofF, Deutsche Altertumskunde, p. 68, is probably right in his conjecture that the lost continuation of the poem described the destruction of the world.
CHAPTER IV
THE BIBLICAL RECORD OF CREATION
(Gen. i. 2, 3)
THE stories of creation having their source in the so-called Priestly Documents include the following passages :
1.   In the beginning the world was Tehom (Tohu and Bohu),
i.e. Primeval Water.
2.   Over Tehom was darkness, over Mayim “ brooded 11 the spirit of God.
3.   The Cosmos proceeded out of the Waters bv the Word of God.
4.   The Cosmos accomplished itself not as a result of this “ brooding,11 but in seven or in eight distinct acts of creation by the Word of God, divided into six days1 work. Seven times God said of it, that it was good, three times it is said “he blessed it11:
(a)   There was Light.
(b)   There is a Raqia‘ made which divides the “Waters1'1
(Tehom) into the “upper Waters11 and the “under Waters.11
(c)   In the “ under Waters11 dry land appeared and was
covered with grass, plants, and trees.
(cl) In the Raqia‘ of the heavens sun, moon, and stars were made, serving as tokens to mark the times, that is, “ festivals,11 days, and years.
(e)   Water and Air were inhabited by live creatures.
(f)   The dry land was peopled with domestic animals, creeping
things, and wild beasts.
(g)   Mankind was created in the image of God—male and
female.
174
CREATION
175
5.   God rested upon the seventh day and hallowed it.
The author of the first chapter of Genesis teas a religious reformer.1 He was acquainted with the Ancient-Oriental conception of the Universe. This conception corresponded to the science of that age just as our present science talks of the Tertiary Age, or the Alluvial Age, etc., only that science was simpler and firmer than ours, and their cosmic speculations gave them a wider outlook than does the present-day purely telluric view of the universe. But the Biblical chronicler does not trouble himself about the speculations, indeed he rather despises them and secretly controverts the mythological forms of the teaching, though being child of his own age he cannot quite escape them. His effort is to present religious thoughts, and he fills the old forms zeith new meaning.2
The following material may be considered in regard to special points:
1.   In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was tohu zca bohu. This “ earth” spoken of in Gen. i. 2 cannot be our “earth,” as the further development of the idea shows. From the earth ( = Tohu and Bohu) arises the tripartite earthly Universe: air, earth, and sea. Therefore in the word “the heavens” (in the beginning God created heaven and earth) the three-part Celestial Universe is hidden, though later the division has not been kept clear. Words have failed the chronicler, just as, for example, in the case of the Greeks, who said “ Uranos ” and “ Gaia ” and in them included the whole of the Over- and Under-worlds. The Oriental cosmogonies used artificial mythological personifications for them which the simplified presentment could not reproduce.
The earthly Universe is therefore chaotic Primeval Flood. This doctrine of Chaotic Water we have found in every Ancient-
1   See p. 8i.
2   This is the fundamental idea of the A.T.A.O. ; Winckler, F., iii. 3S6 f., now also expresses the same opinion. The chroniclers of the traditions hold to the science of their time, just as a modern theologian, convinced of the Darwinian theory, would make evolution the foundation of a sermon on creation. A lyric religious conception, which is contained in the first chapter of Genesis, is clearly seen in Ps. civ.
1T6 THE BIBLICAL RECORD OF CREATION
Oriental cosmogony. The worlds arise from Primeval Ocean ; see p. 6.
The word Tehom, name of the elemental Waters (without article, therefore thought of as personified), corresponds on the one hand to the Babylonian word tamtu, “ sea” (in the Babylonian Record of Creation spoken of on pp. 142 ff.), designating the elemental Waters wherein were contained (comp. 2 Pet. iii. 5) the later heavenly and earthly world : and on the other hand it corresponds to the mythological idea of Tiamat. the clragon-like monster, whose defeat by Marduk, God of Light, precedes the new creation of the world in the Babylonian epic Enuma elish. There is a trace in the word of the mythological lore, which is well known to the author but which he would fain avoid. Still more clearly is the mythology shown in the designation Tohu and Bohu. As Tohu corresponds to Ti(h)amat, so Bohu is reminiscent of Behemoth (behemat), the name of another monster of chaos, comp. Job xl. 19 In Marduk’s combat chaos is represented by two monsters. Ivingu and Tiamat, see p. 146. The dragons in the north heaven and the south heaven of the star- chart correspond to them.1
Tohu and Bohu belong to the primeval world. The Phoenician Bau, according to Philo, mother of Primeval Man. and the Babylonian Mother-goddess Bau,2 "correspond” to Bohu, but they belong to the present feon.
2.   In the idea "the spirit of God brooded” a fragment of Ancient-Oriental teaching in mythological form is hidden. The creatiye "spirit of God” is, in the higher sense, what Mummu (according to Damascius Mc-A/ya?, "the intelligible world”) is in the Babylonian teaching : see pp. 6 f., 91. It is the Sophia which, according to Prov. viii. 22 ft', (p. 188), dwelt in the waters and was operative in creation. The “brooding” is plainly a remnant of a mythological expression. According to an
1   See Lepsius, Reich Christi, 1903, 227, who shows Bohu = behemoth, p-ehe- mait on the Egyptian celestial globe, which shows the crocodile in place of the northern dragon of our globe. A proof that the author of the first chapter of Genesis knew the monsters of chaos is given by the inclusion of the Tanninim amongst the creatures of the sea ; see p. 1S1.
2   If Hommel’s equation of the goddess Gur = Bau in his Semiten holds good, then II. R. 54, No. 3, 18, is significant, where we find ilu Gur = Am-utu-an-ki
mother who bore heaven and earth” (see Stucken, Astralmythen, p. 71).
CHAOS
177
Egvptian mvth (see Brugsch, Religion. 161) Ehnum, the architect. modelled an Egg*1 which contained the light, upon a potters wheel.
(x In a invthological piesentment the world would be said to result from the ;; brooding of the spirit.” But the religious thought breaks free from this form. The world arises from the Word of God. who is independent of the world and rules with might over it. Here there is no theogony to be found. The certainty with which " God" is here spoken of raises the Biblical teaching of creation high above every Oriental cosmogony.
That the idea of creation by the Word of God could arise in Babylonia also may be taken as proof of the high spiritual level of the Babylonian religion.
When Marduk is ordained to be avenger against Tiamat and Lord of Heaven. ” to whom the lordship over the whole Universe shall be given." he is to inaugurate his lordship by a miracle:
They placed a garment ” in their midst.
Spoke to Marduk, their Firstborn:
Thy decrees of) Fate. O Lord, stand before those of the Gods !
Command destruction and creation, so shall it be !
When thou openest thy mouth the garment shall disappear!
Command it again, so shall the garment (again be unhurt !v
Then he commanded with his mouth, and the garment was destroyed.
He commanded again, and the garment was again created.
When the Gods, his fathers, saw what proceeded from his mouth,
they rejoiced, they did homage : Marduk is king !
The incident sound* childish, but a deep meaning underlies it. The passage belongs to those in which the reciter onlv hints at things which are well known to the hearers, or. contrariwise. are held as my Meries. The " garment " can scarcely be simply a cloak. The expression following t;be unhurt" would not suit that. It must be dealing with a cosmic cloak, which has to do with the ruling of destinies. Alarduk's cloak
1   Comp. p. I Sr. For the Egg of the world in Phoenician cosmogony, see p. 156, above. For same in India and China, etc., p. 165. The pictures in Xiklas Muller's G'zube/t. U'issirz zotd K:ins: dir Hindu, Mainz. iScc, are specially interesting.
VOL. I.
12
178 THE BIBLICAL RECORD OF CREATION
(fig. 32) shows cosmic designs which in any case represent his lordship over the world’s destiny. In the Biblical Ephod and the High Priest’s robe with its cosmic ornamentation (see Exod. xxviii. 31 ff.) we find the same presentment. The coronation mantle made in Byzantium for one of the medieval German emperors, “ with representations from the Apocalypse” upon it, signified in the same way the rulership of the world.
4a. In terse words the Biblical writer records: “And God said: Let there he light! And there teas light/” Pagan cosmogonies speak in the mythological form transmitted to us of a fantastic victory of the God of Light over dark Primeval Chaos. For the world proceeded from Chaos, as the New World arises in springtime out of the winter flood, after the defeat of the Dragon of Winter. The appearance of Marduk as Light- giver gains peculiar significance when we remember that in Babylonian teaching Marduk, Bringer of Light, is made, as son of Ea, equal to Adapa, zer ameluti, “ Seed of Mankind,” who also brings the new age; see pp. 106 and 89. Certain speculations as to an intermediary creator also arose concerning the Biblical creation of light, which precedes the sun, even if they were not originally included in it. In the 104th Psalm, which mirrors the seven acts of creation in lyric form, the first act is indicated in the words, “ who covers himself with light, as with a garment,” and in the prologue to St John’s Gospel, which purposely connects itself with the first chapter of Genesis (“ in the beginning”) the life of the Word is characterised as Light, which from all ages has permeated the Divine creation ; the exalted Christus of the Apocalypse, who conquers the dragon and creates the new world, is called (Rev. iii. 14) “ the beginning of the creation of God.”1 With good reason, therefore, light precedes sun and moon (comp. Isa. lx. 20; Rev. xxii. 5 and xxi. 23) where the light proceeds from apilov?
1   As son of Ea, Marduk therefore corresponds to the Logos as mediator. When on the other hand Mummu ( = Ea, see p. 9) as vorjrbs K6<TIXOS corresponds to the Logos, it is no contradiction. The son in the new age corresponds to the father ; see pp. S9 f., n. I.
2   “ Ram” = Christ, see p. 76; B.N.T., 16. I cannot agree with Winckler’s interpretation, B., iii. 282.
RAQIA‘
179
For the numbers seven and three, see pp. 63 ff From the " epic Enrnna elish, -written upon seven tablets, it is not possible to prove the number of the works of creation, owing to the fragmentary character of the tablets. By the recital in the song of praise to Marduk upon the last tablet the order seems to agree fairly with the Biblical six days’ work. The works of creation in the Babylonian Record of Creation (pp. 142 ff.) ; also are suggestive of the order in Gen. i., only that in the Babylonian record mankind precedes the others; this, on the other hand, agrees with Gen. ii. The Etruscan teaching (pp. 168 ff.) corresponds, as do also the Indian records, and the Persian in the Bundehesh ; see pp. 161 ff. and 165 f.; compare' also the Wessobrunner prayer, p. 173.
4b. Formation of the raqkr to divide the upper from the under waters. There is a trace of the division into three of the i Celestial Universe, which we mentioned p. 175, to be found in * the idea raqia\ It is the same word that in Ezek. i. 22 ff'., x.
1,   designates the body of the chariot of God supported by four Cherubim, representative of the four ends of the Earth. When the writer says, Gen. i. 8, 44 God called the raqia\ which should divide the upper from the under waters, 4 Heaven,”’ it is not possible that it means 44 Heaven ” in the sense in wliich we mean it.1 Raquk is called the “firmly grounded,” the built-up, corresponding to the Babylonian shupuk. It is expressly said 44 raqkk of the heaven ” (that is, the Babylonian shupuk shame),
v.   14, 17, 20, and v. 14 ff, arise in the rciqkk sun and moon and kokabim (“stars,” the planets were specially meant) as 44 tokens.” The expression ragict4 ha shamahn proves that the author of Gen. i. knew of the double raqia‘.2 Raqiai as j Celestial Earth is therefore the zodiac; for it is in the zodiac 1 that the rulers of time move. In the ancient picture of the universe the zodiac is so important as place of manifestation for the stars that the other realms of the celestial world were set in the background, Raqkk, therefore, was simply used for
1   See p. 149, n. 1.
2   Chagiga, I2b: “There are two raqia‘ according to Deut. x. 14.” Ibid., I2a: “Sun, moon, planets and signs of the zodiac are sunk in the raqia'” Comp, also the Hebrew text of Sirach, 41.
180 THE BIBLICAL RECORD OF CREATION
“ heaven.”1 Gen. i. completely gives up the mythological Celestial Universe ancl in its place appears the living God, who, as Creator, stands majestically opposed to Heaven and Earth.2 For raquC as zodiac in the Bible, comp, further p. 189.
4c. Dry land, our Earth, appears out of the waters still surrounding the terrestrial Earth (Hebrew, tebel; Assyrian, nabcilu or tannhiu). Just in the same way Earth is built upon the waters in the Babylonian Record of Creation (pp. 142 ff.). And in Ps. xxiv. 2 Earth is founded upon the seas and established upon the floods, as in the Babylonian record it is built of reeds and mud upon the waters; see p. 143. In an Assyrian version of the Marduk myth, in which Asshur, chief god of the Assyrians, plays the part of Creator of the world,3 the rainbow (<qaqqaru) is stretched “over the ocean and over against Eshara.” That something like this was related in the missing fragments of the epic Enuma elish is shown by the closing hymn, which says of Marduk that he made the ashru (here “ Celestial Earth ”)4 and (over against the ashru) built the clannhiu, that is to say, the tannhiu, i.e. the terrestrial land:5
Because he made the ashru, and built the Earth, Father Bel called him 11 Lord of the Lands” (Tablet VII., 115 f.).
The Creation of Plants as well was described in the Babylonian record spoken of pp. 142 ff*.
1   In Gen. i. 20 the birds (Ps. civ. 12, “fowls of the heaven”) “fly in the raqia‘ of heaven,” that is to say, the side turned towards us of the celestial world represented by the zodiac. The commentator added “above the earth.”
2   Winckler, F., iii. 3S7 f. (commentary upon Genesis), thinks that in verse 6, where the raqia'' is made in the midst of the waters, to divide the waters from the waters, the terrestrial earth, the terrestrial raqia', is meant. The author of the first chapter of Genesis has not kept the ideas clearly apart, and has placed the terrestrial raqia' in the heaven. The very clear-sighted deductions of J. Lepsius, in his Reich Christi, 1903, must be corrected accordingly. Lepsius further concludes that verses 14 to 18 originally came before verse 8.
3   K. 3445 + Rm. 396, Cuneiform Texts, xiii. 24 f., interpreted by Delitzsch, the Babylonian epic of Creation, under No. 20 is tentatively included in the Enuma elish. Asshur is here made equal by the priests of Nineveh (though probably artificially) with Anshar, who belonged to the gods of the primeval world (see p. 147), in order to make his r61e plausible. On the Assyrian claim, see also pp. 154 f. above, and comp. Zimmern, K.A.T., 3rd ed., pp. 351, 496.
4   For the Deluge, see Chap. IX. ; ashru (ashratum) as “terrestrial earth.”
5   See p. 149, n. 7.
STARS
181
That also the epic Enunia elish described this act of creation is shown by a recently discovered fragment of the closing hymn of Tablet VII., which praises Marduk as creator of the world of plants.1
4d. The conception of the stars as spiritual beings is almost , eliminated. It glimmers still in the expression “rulership of i sun and moon,’'' Gen. i. 16 and Gen. ii. 1, “the heavens and the earth and all the host of them.”
Comp. J udges v. 20 : The stars fought from the heavens, the people of Sisera fought from their places. Also in passages which conceive of the stars as mighty rulers, as Isa. xl. 26 ; Job xxxviii. 7 ; Deut. i-j. 19; and in the likening of the king to a star, as in Numb. xxiv. 17. In Isa. xiv. 12 the conception may be hidden. Upon the whole subject, see B.N.T., S3 ft. The mythological presentment of the Sun coming out of the bridal chamber in the • morning as a youthful hero is treated poetically in Ps. xix. 6; ! see p. 117.
Though the mythological meaning of the stars has vanished, the astrological meaning by which, as we have seen, the whole Babylonian conception is governed, is, at least in v. 14 f., recognisable (“ they shall he for signs ”). The othoth are astral signs, against the misuse of which Jeremiah (x. 2) gives warning. At v. 17 the last trace has vanished, as in the hymn to Sun, Moon, and Stars, Ecclesiasticus xliii. 1 ff.
For the Babylonian creation of the stars, see pp. 31 f. and 142 f.
4e. Amongst rcater creatures appear the Tanninim, the “ sea- serpents.” The Ancient-East thought of the sea as peopled with monsters, because of its Underworld character (pp. 8, 15 f.), as the reliefs of Nineveh show. Ps. lxxiv. 13 (see p. 194) shows that w'e may expect to find here an echo of the monsters of chaos. Ps. civ. 26 (founded upon Gen. i.) names Leviathan as a sea monster.2
-A
1
1   K.T., 125 ; the fragment V. R. 21, No. 4 (Delitzsch, IVeltschopfungsepos, p. 152) “comments” upon these four lines of the hymn to Marduk. The observation by Zimmern, A7.A.T., 3rd ed., 510, regarding the creation of the fruitful earth in the Babylonian, is weak, since eshara does not denote the earth, but
“ Olympus.”
2   Apparently added later. The passage makes an awkward impression in the Massora text.

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Re: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST (sumer) I
« Reply #11 on: October 04, 2016, 02:49:06 PM »
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182 THE BIBLICAL RECORD OF CREATION
4f. Compare the creation of animals on a Babylonian fragment, p. 185, and the Babylonian Record of Creation, pp. 142 f.
4g. Creation of Man.—Upon this there is a rich supply of Babylonian material to be considered. In the Babylonian religious conception the creation of man is ascribed to Ea and Aruru, a manifestation of the Mother-goddess ; then to Marduk of Eridu, son of Ea, the Demiurgos, who, on the other hand, is himself “Primeval Manr> (Adapa = Adam,1 zer ameluti “Seed of Mankind”); finally to the Mother-goddess Ishtar herself. The material from which man is made is dhidhu, “ clay ” ; dhidhu iqtarits, “ he broke off clay,” it is said in one of the accounts, word for word like Job xxxiii. 6, comp. Gen. i. 21.2 It is said of a man who is dead, his life has become “earth” (dh/dhish). Ea is therefore called (II. R. 58, No. 5, 57) the “ Potter.” This conception is still further developed in Egypt, where the maker of man is represented sitting at the potter’s wheel.3 The thought of a creation “ after the likeness ” of God is to be found also in the Babylonian teaching, though without the deep religious reflection which lies at the root of the hymn-like utterance of Gen. i. 26 f. At the creation of Eabani, when Aruru “broke off'clay,” it is said (p. 185) that she previously “made in her heart a zikru of thegodAnu”; and in another text (p. 186) Ishtar (Mami, Cod. Hamm., iii.
1   AAAM, AAA11, possibly an intentional differentiation ; see Stricken, Astral- mythai, lx. 71 ; Zimmern, IP. A. 71, 3rd ed., 523 ; Winckler, 71, iii. 2976. K. 3459, col. ii. 12 (A.B., v. 320); adapit seems to be an epithet applied to Marduk. Marduk is the son of Ea in the primeval theogony ; the corresponding figure in the heroic age is Adapa, and in the age of mankind, Adam.
2   See Tzdubar-Nimrod, 1S91, p. 46, A. Jeremias ; also comp. Ps. cxxxix. 15; Gen. ii. 7. For further quotations about the creation out of dhidhu, see Zimmern, AIM. 71, 3rd ed., 506.
3   See pp. 161 and 177, and fig. 61. The presentment “earthborn” is universal. The first man in India, Purusha, who formerly proceeded, instead of Brahma, from the Egg of the world, proceeded, according to the Dharma Shastra (commentary upon the Books of the Law) from the earth, upon the command of Vishnu, whereupon God gave him life (a soul) so that he might know his creator and worship him ; see Lueken, Die Tradiiionen des Menschengeschlechts, 2nd ed., p. 57. In the Chinese Fong-sutong it is said : “When heaven and earth were created, mankind was still wanting. So Niu-hoa (the demiurgos) took yellow earth and made man therefrom.” With the Greeks, Prometheus made the first man out of clay, according to a fragment ascribed to Hesiod, and Minerva bestowed a soul upon him. Aristophanes (Aves, 686) calls mankind “ image of clay” ; Pausanias, (x. 4) “ saw the clay relics of Prometheus in a chapel in Phocis.”
MAN
183
27 ff. ; Ma-ma, see p. 186) makes seven little men and seven little women mikhrusha, probably 44 as her counterparts."11 The story of the creation of Adapa tells of the endowment of man with intelligence.
The following texts and fragments from the Cuneiform may be considered in regard to Adapa:—
1. The Legends of Adapa found in Amarna amongst texts originating in Canaan and Babylonia.2
The record of the actual acts of creation has not been recovered. The fragments that have been recovered relate how Ea endowed his created Being with “ divine ” power, a broad mind to understand the constitution of the land, how he gave him wisdom—he did not, however, give him eternal life—and how he made him, the child of Eridu, as a sage (?)3 amongst men. We learn, further, that as a “sage and cunning fox” (ubkciUu and atrakhasis)4 he was entrusted with all manner of priestly functions, and governed as divine baker and cupbearer.5 With the bakers of Eridu he looked after the baking, providing the daily supply of bread and water, he provided the dishes with his clean hands, no dish was made ready without him, he entered the ship daily and went a-fishing for Eridu. When. Ea stretched himself upon his couch, then Adapa left Eridu and sailed around in his ship during the night to catch fish. From the fragments telling of Adapa’s later fate, we learn that Ann, God of Heaven, considered how this Being, expressly called in one passage “Seed of Mankind,” might also become endowed with the gift of eternal life. One day as he went fishing the south wind suddenly overturned his boat and he fell into the sea. Adapa in revenge broke the wings of the south wind (the bird Zu), so that he could not fly for seven days. Anu, God of Heaven, called him to account, saying, “ No mercy ! ” but at the prayer of Tammuz and Gishzida, Watchers of the Gate, Anu softened his anger, and commanded that a banquet should be prepared, and a festival garment presented to him, and oil for his anointing :A garment and oil he accepted, but food and drink he refused. Ea had warned him : “ When thou appearest before Anu, they will offer thee food of Death: eat not thereof! Water of Death will they offer thee: drink not thereof! They will present thee with a garment: put it on ! They will offer thee oil: anoint
1   Zimmern, K.A.T., 3rd ed., 506 ; comp. Jensen, A'.B., vi. 546. “Descent of Ishtar into Hades,” where Ea, before he makes the messengers of the gods, first made an image in his heart ; see p. 185.
2   Full transcription and translation in Jensen, A’.B-, vi. 92 ff.
3   See Jensen, K.B., vi. 406. The divine son of Ea, Marduk, and the human son, Adapa, are equally abkallu.
4   Reversed Hasis-atra (Xisuthros) in Berossus. Epithet applied to the
beginner of the new age, after the Deluge.   5 P- 60.
184 THE BIBLICAL RECORD OF CREATION
thyself with it.” 1 But behold, it was Bread of Life and Water of Life ! Ami breaks forth in wonder. Upon the man who lias been permitted by his creator to gaze into the secrets of heaven and earth (i.e. has been endowed with the knowledge of mysteries, see pp. 83 f.) he (Anu) has desired to bestow also immortality. And by the “ envy of the god ” the man has been deceived.2 3
Like the Erishkigal myth, this text was sent incidentally with some state papers to the Egyptian king, probably as classical specimens of composition and writing, the fine style of both composition and writing, so different from Canaanite work, pointing to a Babylonian source.
2.   The fragment Rassam, 982,3 tells of the creation by Ea of a masculine Being in the midst of the Ocean, who was afterwards suckled. Zimmern conjectures that this refers to a story of the birth of Adapa.
S.   The beginning of the Vlth tablet of the epic Enuma elish describes, after a ceremonious introduction, the making of man as the last act of creation :
When Marduk heard the discourse 4 of the srods,
then it came into his mind, to make [artificially].
He opened his mouth and spake unto Ea,
What he in his innermost thought had conceived communicating [to him] :
Blood 5 6 will I take, and bone will I [build, cut off],0
will place there mankind, the man may [   ] ;
1   For banquet customs and the garment, see Ps. xxiii. 5 ; Matt. xxii. 12.
2   In Gen. iii. 5 the idea of “ the envy of God ” shows in the words of the serpent.
3   Delitzsch, Das Weltschdpfungsepos, pp. no f. ; comp. Zimmern, A'. A. T., 3rd ed., 520.
4   Unfortunately only unimportant parts of this discourse, which form the conclusion of the Vth tablet, are contained in the fragments communicated by King, loc. cit.
5   Or is it “my blood”? Another epic fragment, Cun. Texts, vi. 5, see Zimmern, A’. A. T., 3rd ed., 497, says the Mother of the gods made man out of clay and the blood of a slain god. The record of Berossus, according to which, after Bel (Marduk) had cut off his own head, he mixed earth with the flowing blood and so made men (and animals), has proved itself true. That the beheaded one then “hears” and “conceives something in his mind ” and “ opens his mouth ” is no impossibility in a myth. It is treating, as Berossus says, “of the allegorical presentment of natural phenomena.” The head continues to grow, like the serpent in the Persian myth ; see p. 164. We must decline the religious, rather dogmatic conclusions appearing in the article “ Heidnische Weissagungen auf den Messias ” by Fr. Hommel in the proof volume of Glauben tend IVissen (popular leaflets for the defence and deepening of the Christian faith, published by Dennert).
6   Or: a piece of clay will I [break off)? see K.A.T., 3rd ed., 5S6, n. 3.
MAN
185
will create mankind, that he may dwell [ laid upon [him] shall be the service of the their] divine rooms.1
];
gods, these be
[in
\The remainder is mutilated.]
A song of praise to Marduk at the end of the tablets of the Euuina eli.sh says retrospectively about the work of creation :
.... who created mankind, to deliver them, the merciful, to whom it belongs to bestow life : discourses about him shall continue and shall not be forgotten in the mouth of the dark-haired race, made by his hands.
The meaning of the words “ to deliver them *’ (Assyrian padu, compare the corresponding Hebrew word) probably refers to Marduk’s character, described pp. 106 ff., comp. p. 195, particularly to his warfare with the Power of Darkness, which continues till the renewal of the world. It is also to be noted that Marduk has here taken the role of Nebo, as foreteller and bringer of the new age (pp. 74 and 91 and comp. p. 90, n. I).
4.   In a fragmentary passage on Tablet VII. it is said:2
He named the ends of the earth, created mankind (the darkhaired).
5.   The creation of Eabani in the Gilgamesh epic, Tablet I. :
.... thou Aruru, hast been created by [Gilgamesh], now make his counterpart! . . . .
When Aruru heard this, she made in her heart a counterpart of Anu.
Aruru washed her hands, broke off' clay, spat upon it (?),
.... Eabani, made a mighty one ....
6.   In the “journey to hell of Ishtar” Ea makes an amelu ass'mnu, who is to see to the deliverance of Ishtar out of the Underworld:
Ea made an image in his heart (?)
Made Uddushu-namir, an assinnu-man.
7.   The fragment D.T. 41 3 begins :
After that the gods all together [the universe] made, the heavens established, [the earth kingdom] put together, brought forth animated beings ....[....]
1   Men are made for the service of the gods ; comp. p. 143.
2   127 ; there erroneously “ created.”
3   Last translated by Jensen in K.B., vi. pp. 42 f.
186 THE BIBLICAL RECORD OF CREATION
Cattle of the field, [beasts] of the field and crowds [built the city],
'....] the living beings [. . . . given],
to the cattle of the] field and to the crowd of the city [....] apportioned
the cattle of the field, the multitude of the crowd, every sort of creature [....]
[. . . .], that in the multitude of my family [. . . .],
when Ea came up and two little [beings created],
in the multitude of the crowd [their form (?)] made beautiful   1
\Yct more mutilated lines follow.]
It is to be inferred from the last two lines that Ea rises from the ocean and makes two beautiful little men amongst the men already made.2
8.   In the series of incantations of Shurpu 3 it is said :
It came to Ea, Lord of mankind, whose hands had made man.
9.   In an incantation text4 which seems to have been recited during births, Atarkhasis complains when he appears before Ea, his Lord, of the afflictions which have fallen upon man (probably before the Flood, see below):
.... you have made us, and [therefore]
could have kept from us illness, fevers, agues, misfortunes.
At the conclusion of this text we find from seven women, seven little men and seven little women “beautifully made11 and “ completed as her counterpart11 by Mami the Mother-goddess and maker of men. Hammurabi calls himself (H.C., iii. 27 ft'.) “ Creation of the wise Ma-ma.” She is a variation of the Mother-goddess Ishtar, comp. pp. 117 f.
10.   111 the so-called Creation Legends of Kutha5 it is related, rather incoherently to us (as yet) how a king of Kutha was once upon a time threatened by monsters, and the creation of them is told as follows :
1   Emendation verified by the stele of Merodach-Baladan, tishtarrikh nabnilsuu.
2   Jensen rightly concludes the pre-supposition of these from the expressions “ throng of the city ” and “ my families.”
3   Tablet IV., line 70. Interpreted by H. Zimmern, Beitrdge zur Kenntnis der babylonisclien Religion.
4   Kb 3399 + 3934 5 see Jensen, K. B., vi. 274 ff.
5   Last treated by Jensen, K.B., vi. 290 ff. (“the king of Kutha”), and before by Zimmern, Z.A., xi. 317 ff., “King tukulti bel nishi ” and the “ Kuthsean Legends of Creation.”
MAN
187
The warriors with bodies like cave birds, men with countenances like ravens,
the great gods generated them, and
upon the ground where the gods had built his city (?)
Ti&mat suckled them,
Their mother, queen of the gods, made them beautiful.
In the midst of the mountains they grew large,
They attained to manhood and they acquired stature.
When in Gen. i. 26 the creation of man is introduced by the address. 44Let us make man in onr image, after our likeness f behind these words is hidden the remains of a conception of a heavenly council,1 as it is thought of in Isa. vi. 8, or as it is said in the nou-Biblical legends connected with the historv of Moses in Egypt:
Then were opened to his vision the heavenly heights, the secrets of far worlds revealed themselves to him, the angels of God were assembled about the throne of the Almighty, to give judgment upon the events of the earth.2
As in Job xxxviii. 7 it refers to wondering beholders. It is not at all necessary to consider that it refers to helpers in the creation, neither, consequently, need it be an 44 echo of polytheism from the Babylonian source” (Budde, Urgeschielite, p. 484).
Babylonian parallels to the creation of man 44 after the image” of God have been spoken of above, p. 185.
The Creation according to the so-called Yahvist (Gen. ii. 4 fif.)
44 In the day that Yahvch made earth and heaven—no plant of the feld was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up: for Yahveh had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there zvas not \jjet] a man to till the ground, [but there went up a mist from the earth, and zcatered the zchole face of the ground]s—then Yahveh fanned man of the dust of the ground
1   Comp. Gen. iii. 22, xi. 7 ; Job i. 6 ff. In the Wessobrunner prayer God is surrounded by the hosts of heavenly spirits at the creation ; see p. 173.
2   See Beer, Lcben Mosis ; upon the celestial council, comp. B.N.T., pp. T3 ff.
3   The sixth verse, which disturbs the coherence, possibly belonged originally to the description of the garden, where the Water of Life is missing, which should be near the Tree of Life ; see Holzinger. ad toe,, in Marti’s Handkommentar. If our comparison with the Babylonian story is right, this supposition gains new support therefrom.
188 THE BIBLICAL RECORD OF CREATION
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soulC
These are the words with which the so-called Yahvist introduces the history of man. The tone of the story recalls the beginning of the Babylonian Record of Creation spoken of pp. 142 ff., and also the beginning of the epic Enuma elish. The Northern cosmogony, p. 170, and the Wessobrunner prayer begin in like manner: “   . then Yahveh made man.”
It sounds almost like an intentional polemic against the non- Biblical theogony, “ . . . . then the gods were made.” The terrestrial acts of creation begin with man in the Babylonian Record mentioned, pp. 142 ff.
Creation in the Book of Proverbs (Prov. viii. 22-31)
Wisdom (Hochmah, Sophia) speaks :
Yahveh formed me as the beginning of his way, as the first of his works,
Before his works of old.
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning,
Or ever the earth was.
When there were no depths, I was brought forth;
When there were no fountains abounding with water.
Before the mountains were settled,
Before the hills was I brought forth :
While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields,
Nor the sum of the dust of the world.
When he established the heavens, I was there :
When he set a circle over the ocean :
When he made firm the skies above :
When the fountains of the deep became strong :
When he gave to the sea its bound,
That the waters should not transgress his commandments,
When he marked out the foundations of the earth :
Then was I by him as a master workman ;
And I was daily his delight,
Sporting (busy) always before him,
Sporting upon his habitable earth,
And my delight was with the sons of men.
Wisdom dwells in the deeps, from whence the earth proceeds.1 She corresponds to the voJ]TOS KOO-JULO9 of Damascius (mytholo-
1 See Peiser, O.L.Z., 1900, 451 ; and comp. p. 191, n. I.
CREATION IN THE BOOK OF JOB
189
gisecl as Mum mu, Ea, Marduk-abkallu), to the “spirit brooding upon the face of the waters11 of Gen. i., and to the Logos, see pp. 6, 90, n. 1, 176.
Creation hi the Book of Job (Job xxxviii. 4-7)
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ?
Declare, if thou hast understanding !
Who determined the measures thereof, — seeing thou knowest!—
Or who stretched the line upon it?
Whereupon were the fountains thereof made to sink,
Or who laid the corner-stone thereof;
When the morning stars sang together,
When all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Then all the separate parts of the terrestrial world are described. The “ scientific11 details are enlarged upon in these purely poetic descriptions.
THE BIBLICAL COSMOS
The following material may be considered in this connection (comp. p. 175).
We meet with a faint trace of raqiai 2 as the zodiac (pp. 179 f.) in the 19th Psalm :
The heavens declare the glory of God; and (as it were in a special way) the raqiae sheireth his handiwork (it is the commentary for the revelation of the Deity).
The question may be suggested in this connection, whether the shekhaqim, which sometimes stands parallel with shamaim, “heaven,” may not in some passages signify “heaven11 in the same sense as the Babylonion eshara, which like “ Olympus ” was built opposite to apsn ; see p. 149.
Hast thou stamped (the verb relating to raqia1 is used) with him upon shekhaqim, strong as a molten mirror? (Job xxxvii. 13.)
Thy lovingkindness, Yahveh, is in the heavens,
Thy faithfulness (reach eth) nnto the shekhaqim,
Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God,
Thy statutes1 like the great Tehom.2 (Ps. xxxvi. 5 f.)
1   mpis, not “judgments ” (Kautzsch).
2   Here and elsewhere in the Septuagint given as afivacros ; Vulgate, abyssus.
190 THE BIBLICAL RECORD OF CREATION
As heaven and the mountains are antitheses in the last passage, shelehaqim and tehom (ocean) must be taken as the corresponding celestial and terrestrial ideas.1 In Deut. xxxiii. 15 ff. Joseph’s land is described as the most blessed, as the central point. In it “ the heaven above, and the tehom, that coucheth beneath 11 are named in antithesis; and the sun and growing moon, comp. p. 85, n. 1 (Winckler, F., iii. 306 ft’.).
The three parts of the universe are known also to the so- called Elohist in Exod. xx. 4 :
Thou shall not make 7into thee any idol, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the mater under the earth.
“ In the water under the earth 11 gives a very faint, confused conception. Ocean was thought of as being round about and under the earth. When the passage forbids making the image of anything that is in the sea (comp. v. 11, “the sea, and all that in them is ”), surely it must include not only the fishes, but also the sea monsters: Leviathan, Tanninim, Tehomoth, and Behemoth, as they appear in the poetic passages; comp. p. 181. That these mythical sea monsters were pictorially represented in the temple at Jerusalem is suggested by Ezek. viii. 1 ff. The controversies show that the “scientific11 presentment is traceable even in Exod. xx.
Comp, also Ps. cxxxv. 6, “ Whatsoever Yahveh ‘pleased, that hath he done. In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all Tehomoth?
Ps. cxlviii. faintly reflects the conception :
v.   1. Praise the Lord from the heavens. v. 7. Praise the Lord from the earth.
The “ heavens11 are further explained as m'romim; here it is the stars, such as in Isa. xxiv. 21 ff. (see p. 195), have become the hosts of Yahveh (in the Priestly Documents they are wholly eliminated). V. 4 then specially mentions the waters of the heavens, to which a p'n (boundary) is given beyond which they may not pass ; see p. 150, n. 2.
1   In shekhaqim one may certainly think of the “waters that are above,’’ which, as in Gen. i., are over against the “ waters that are below.”
THE BIBLICAL COSMOS
191
The sea in v. 7 with the tanninhn and all tehomoth (tiamat! or is it behemoth ?), all mythical sea-monsters, also all earthly creatures and inhabitants, belongs to the Earth, that is, to the earthly realm in opposition to the celestial.
In the Babylonian apsii the sea is in mythological sense the dwelling-place of “ wisdom.” Ea, who dwells in apsu, is bel nimeqi, “Lord of Wisdom”; see p. 105. In Ps. xxxvi. 6 the judgments of God are likened to the “great tehom.'1'' And in Proverbs wisdom is represented as sitting in tehom}
When the earth in Ps. xxiv. 2 is “ founded upon the seas (D^) and established upon the floods (niin?)?'’ this also corresponds to the Babylonian conception ; see p. 143. In the beginning all was sea; the earth was built upon it; therefore the ocean was not only around, but also under the earth. So in Gen. vii. 11 the fountains of the great tehom were opened at the Flood (see Chap. X.), and in Gen. xlix. 25 blessings come from tehom “ that coucheth beneath ” as they do from heaven above.
What are the windows of heaven (nuts), Gen. vii. 11 ; 2 Kings vii. 2; Isa. xxiv. 18; Mai. iii. 10? Is it merely a poetic expression for rain ? Or is it connected with the still unintelligible mysterious “ waters that are above ” which were shut off by a khoq (bolt) ? see p. 149-
We find in the Biblical as in the Babylonian presentment a popular idea also which, alongside the division into heaven, earth, and water, puts heaven above as God’s dwelling-place, earth as man’s abode, and the Underworld beneath the earth as the place of the dead.
The heavens are the heavens of Yahveh, but the earth hath he given to the children of men ; they that go down into silence praise not Yahveh. (Ps. cxv. 16 f.).
Ask thee a sign, in the depths of the Underworld or in the heights above (Isa. vii. 11). His wisdom is high as heaven, deeper than the Underworld (Job xi. S).
They must have seen by the arch of the Milky Way that the heavens formed a rounded vault. In the Greek age this is shown by Eccles. i. 5, in Biblical documents: “ The Sun also ariseth, and the min goeth dozen and hasteth to his place where he ariseth.”
1   P. 188. Upon the “deliverance” which is brought from the “seas” by Marduk, comp. p. 107, n. 2.
192 THE BIBLICAL RECORD OF CREATION
The Greeks spoke of the antipodes (Macrobius, i. 21, see p. 128, also Aristarcus as early as the third century B.C.), and knew that the earth is a globe.
We must entirely separate the “ scientific ” conception from the poetic description, chiefly to be found in the Psalms, which paints the universe as a visible building of which earth is the lower and heaven the upper floor, where God dwells with the higher beings, and garners up provisions, whilst the sea (chnri, that is, p-|N ',DDNj1 corresponding to the Babylonian apsh) garners the water springs. It is thus in Ps. xxxvi.
The author of Ps. civ. also will have nothing to do with cosmological descriptions. He describes how the majesty of God pervades the whole natural world, and draws his own pictures, though by isolated expressions (raqia\ Leviathan) he betrays his knowledge of the mythology.
B. Dulim in his Commentary on the Psalms (Ps. xxxvi. and civ.) has built up the Biblical picture of the universe exactly like the poetic descriptions, which have nothing to do with a system. At the same time he underestimates the cosmological knowledge of the Israelites “ Although the Jews were scattered throughout the whole world, yet their knowledge of the real world (the conception of the universe is meant) is much less than that of the Greeks, because they had no idea of a scientific collection and treatment of the scattered knowledge” (p. xxvi.). From the Bible alone we could in nowise come to this conclusion. The learned Jems in Babylon had mastered all the knowledge of their lime as much as the other Oriental scholars of that age, as the Hellenistic Jems did that of their time, and as the medieval Jews were conversant with Islamic knowledge. Dulnn’s interpretation of the conception of the universe clearly shows Greek influence. Also in Schiaparelli’s book Astronomy in the Old Testament, the presentments founded upon <c science ” are unfortunately not kept separate from the poetic expressions.
Co JIB AT BETWEEN YAHVEH AND THE DltAGON
Oriental mythology is reflected in several passages in the Old Testament, where Yahveh’s strife with, and victory over, dragonlike beings, or over primeval water personified in Tehom, are
1   In that case the word would then be etymologically separated from apSs, “ all being.”
COMBAT BETWEEN YAHVEH AND DRAGON 193
described.1 H. Gunkel has dealt with this problem very exhaustively in his book Schopfung unci Chaos. But only portions of the passage treated by Gunkel show a really mythological character in their form. From the passages which speak of the creation of the world by Yahveh directly after the combat, both Zimmern and Gunkel have drawn the conclusion that here are shown clear traces of a more ancient history of creation, which is more nearly related to the Babylonian myth contained in the epic Enuma elish than Gen. i. in its present form, and that the strife of the creating God, which was originally known to the Israelites, was purposely suppressed in Gen. i., leaving, however, in the name Tehom as primeval water, a faint trace behind. There seems no doubt that the strife between Yahveh and Tehom and the combat between Marduk and Tiamat belong to the same cycle of ideas. But just as we reject the theory of a borrowed literature, and assert that it is much more a question of a common mythological ancestry, so also we dismiss the view which sees in the allusions in some passages of the Old Testament a residuum of the ancient Israelite religion in opposition to the purified religious conceptions of a later time.
The passages concerned, in Job, in Isaiah, and in the Psalms, are poetic pictures taking form and colour from the Ancient- Oriental mythology which was known in Canaan, exactly as do some Christian orations, especially some sermons, only zee have the inspiration of northern as well as of Oriental mythology.2
When the Israelite wished to describe the strife of Yahveh against the powers of evil, he clothed his story in a picture of the combat with Rahab or Leviathan, mythological monsters, just as he thought of the Ancient-Oriental River of Death when he wished to describe the fear of death (“ the floods of Belial made me afraid,” Ps. xviii. 4).3 The author of the sacer-
1   Comp. B.N.T., 36 ff.
2   We may compare Luther’s Articles of Smalkald with its combat against the tail of the Dragon in Rome, also the pictures in Heliand and in Titurel. Many songs in the hymn-books are full of mythological fancies—for example, the old Easter songs which celebrate the victory of Christ.
3   It would be just as mistaken to conclude ancient elements in the Israelite religion from this as it would be to conclude Greek religion in Schiller’s time because in his poem Die Glocke he makes the beloved wife to be borne away by the dark King of Shadows.
VOI.. 1.
13
194 THE BIBLICAL RECORD OF CREATION
dotal books avoided all such poetic play of fancy because of his strong desire to avoid even an appearance of any mythological heathen presentment.1
The most important passages in this connection are the following:—
Job. xxvi. 12 f.: He stirreth up the sea with his power,
and by his understanding he smiteth through Rahab (mascul.),
By his wind .... the heavens,
his hand hath pierced the nahash (serpent) bariakh.2
Compare the “ helpers of Rahab, who bowed themselves under Yahveh,” Job ix. 13, with the “ helpers of Tiamat,” p. 146. In Job iii. 8, “ they that curse the day ” (sects of sorcerers ?), therefore opponents of light, that is to say, of the God of Light, are in alliance with Leviathan and Rahab, in connection with which note that in Enuma elish, i. 109, the gods inimical to Marduk curse the day 3 and range themselves upon the side of Tiamat.
Ps. lxxxix. lOff. : Thou hast broken .... Rahab (v. 9> comp. Job ix. 13, parallel “sea”)
Thou hast scattered thine enemies with a strong arm ; the heavens are thine, the earth also is thine, tebel (the earth, in opposition to rakia‘) and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.
Isa. li. 9 f :   Awake, awake, put on strength, 0 arm of Yahveh !
awake as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times !
Art thou not it that cut Rahab in pieces, the tannin 4 .... f 5 6
Ps. lxxiv. 13 :   Thou didst break up the sea by thy strength :
thou brakedst the heads of the tannimm in the waters ; thou brakedst. the heads of Leviathan in pieces ....
1   Comp. p. 175. Another example : the Elohist speaks often of the angels. The Yahvist puts Yahveh in their place (Gen. xxviii.). He probably knew that from a harmless angelology to the heathen view, as in fact it developed into in later Judaism, was a very small step. So he avoided the angels altogether.
2   Here the zodiacal presentment of the writhing Dragon in the north heaven and the Serpent in the south heaven lies at the root.
3   Interpretation in any case very uncertain.
4   For tanntnu, earth, properly speaking, dragon, see p. 149, n. 7.
5   In the description they were thinking in particular, as the continuation of this passage shows, of the victory over Egypt in primeval ages and of the passage through the Red Sea; see p. 93, ii. and comp. p. 196. But it does not follow that one must see specially Egyptian mythological elements in it (Rahab may be an emblem of the crocodile); see p. 152.
6   Hrozny sees a correspondence with the Labbu dragon, monster of Babylonian mythology, pp. 195 f. ; see M. V.A.G., 1903, pp. 264 ff. For Leviathan as manyheaded serpent, comp. p. 152, n 2.
COMBAT BETWEEN YAHVEH AND DRAGON 195
Then follow the songs of praise to the Creator who has made moon and sun, the day and the seasons.
Isa. xxvii. 1 :   In that day shall Yahveh draw his sickle-sword1
against Leviathan, the nahash hariakh, and against Leviathan, the crooked nahash, and he shall slay the tannin that is in the sea.'2
Isa. xxiv. £1 ff is a passage which hitherto has not gained sufficient attention as showing the relationship in form between the Babylonian and the Biblical presentment. The combat of Yahveh against a hostile world is described in the same form in which we find the combat of Marduk against Tiamat and the hostile gods presented.3 Yahveh conquers the heathen kings and the “ host of the height,that is, the stars, including sun and moon (comp, verse £3, therefore the ruling gods of the Ancient-East). The end is to be that Yahveh overthrows their power and imprisons them, as Ea does Mummu and Marduk does the helpers of Tiamat, and his dominion extends throughout the world from Zion as centre.4
The teaching of the expectation of a Redeemer who is to bring the new age is veiled in mythology in the combat of Marduk with the Dragon. We found traces of this teaching in Babylonia, see pp. 107 ff. and comp. p. 185, and on Persian ground it is especially clear, pp. 161 f.'
In the Biblical presentation also of the expectation of the Redeemer the Dragon combat is used. It may be noticed in the deliverance out of Egypt. Egypt was the dark power which had to be conquered before the era of Israel could dawn, and therefore we meet with the Dragon motif in the Exodus. In prophetic imagery Egypt often appears as the primordial monster.r> In Tobit viii. 3 the evil spirit is banished to Egypt (= the Underworld) and bound there. The strife in Dan. vii. 9 ff seems to be connected with the ages of the world system.
1   For Marduk’s weapons, see Winckler, F., iii. 220 f. ; comp. p. no, above. The crescent sword is moon motif, see fig. 15.
2   For tannin, see Isa. li. 9 f. and p. 149, n. 7. Kautzsch, “ crocodile of the Nile,” see p. 194, n. 5, above.
2   Bonsset,Jiidiscke Apohalyplik, holds that the passage shows Persian influence. But (apart from the similarity of idea) it is quite certainly “genuine.”
4   Verse i^b is an addition ; the previous sentences use ancient words and ideas.
r’ Ps. lxxxvii. 4, lxxxix. 11 ; Isa. xxx. 7, li. 9 ; see p. 194.
196 THE BIBLICAL RECORD OF CREATION
The “son of man’'’ appears in the judgment assembly, in the clouds of heaven.1 He has slain the beast, who spoke great words,2 and as a reward dominion and glory and a kingdom are given to him.3 The final age corresponds here to the primeval age. The Dragon combat begins after the expulsion from Paradise. In Gen. iii. 15 the strife is begun and it is a long-continued strife, to come to an end in the final age.
CONCLUDING WORDS UPON “CREATION”
The deductions presented above should be sufficient to show that the records of creation in Genesis are, according to their form and the conception of the world lying at their root, derived from the same common source as the other Ancient- Oriental cosmogonies.
The prevailing assumption of a literary dependence of the Biblical records of creation upon Babylonian texts is very frail, and, in view of the universality of the idea of the beginning and development of the worlds, need not be considered at all, or at any rate (as in the case of the Flood) only in a very secondary degree.4 When an Israelite discoursed about crea
1   This motif of the Judgment Day is to be found in the New Testament apocalyptic, Matt. xxvi. 64, and Rev. i. 7. Possibly storm phenomena are meant. Comparison with the combat against Labbu leads to this conjecture (see p. 152, back of the text), where the victor appears in storm with the seal of life before his face.
2   Comp. p. 149, Tiamat’s appearance.
3   Further detail in Dan. vii. The present text has blurred the picture. It is the same scene as in Rev. iv. f., where the apviov appears as victor and receives the books of Fate, see B.N. T., 13 f. ; comp, also B.N.T., pp. 94 f., where Matt. iv. is made clear in this connection.
4   H. Gunkel says further, with careful reservations (see Genesis, 1st ed., 109 f.), that the Hebrew tradition, or rather the presupposed primeval record contained in the first chapter of Genesis, must in the first instance be dependent upon the Babylonian myth (and only the myth contained in the epic Enuma elish is meant ; the Babylonian record treated at pp. 142 ff. has hardly been noticed at all, though it is more nearly related to Gen. i. than is the epic), because both traditions have in common the parting of the primeval waters, and because this tradition is only imaginable in a land where, in winter, in the dark time of the year, water reigned everywhere, but in spring, when the new light arose, the waters divided above and below. One must therefore conclude a land where the winter rains and great floods determine the climate : such a land Canaan was not, but Babylon was. But the disruption of Tiamat, which corresponds to the cosmic myth underlying the story,
CONCLUDING WORDS UPON •‘CREATION” 197
tion his mind unconsciously but of necessity moved in the cycle of thought of the Ancient-Oriental presentment. And even when he had new religious ideas to communicate, still the form and the imagery he used must inevitably have been influenced by his surrounding world.
The pre-eminence of the Biblical story in the first and second chapters of Genesis over all other heathen, and especially over the Babylonian cosmogony, and its religious value lies, in our opinion, in the following points :1
1.   In the absolute certainty with which God is spoken about. All heathen stories of creation tell at the same time of the origin of the gods; the cosmogonies are connected with theo- gonies. The God who, in Gen. i., made heaven and earth, stands sublime above his works.
2.   The powers moving in creation and the separate parts of the visible creation appear in the other Oriental cosmogonies as gods and monsters. The teaching which looks upon all phenomena of nature as the work of one divine power is everywhere else mythological. With the Biblical chronicler only faint traces remain in the poetry of the language (“ tohu and bohu," the spirit of God brooded ”). He knows the ideas of his age and the teaching about the origin of the worlds. This “ science ” is not an end in itself, but serves him as a means of expression for quite unprecedented religious thoughts. There is not a trace to be found in Gen. i. of any mythological personifications.
3.   The attitude of the Biblical story of creation is one of prayer and gratitude towards the almighty Creator and Preserver of the world. We may compare the lyrical echo of the first chapter of Genesis in the 104th Psalm. The heathen cosmogonies did not lend themselves to religious ends. The epic Enuma elish, for example, has a political purpose: it goes to prove that the dominion of the world belongs to Babylon ; its tutelary god Marduk was the creator of the world.
is to be explained by the conception of the universe, not by climatic circumstances. Nikel, Genesis and Keilschriftforschung, p. 75, with whose presentment of the picture of the universe I cannot altogether agree, raises the same objection.
1   See Kampf mn Babel und Bibel, 4th ed., p. 17.
198 THE BIBLICAL RECORD OF CREATION
THE WEEK OF SEVEN DAYS AND THE SABBATH
Gen. ii. 3: “ And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it."
The week of seven days running through the whole solar year is a peculiarity of the Israelite calendar, and the institution of this continuous procession of weeks (shabudi, comp. Gen. xxix. 27; Judges xiv. 17) 1 marks a great spiritual step. Whence the Israelites took it is not known. They certainly did not invent it for themselves; we find no traces that the Israelites ever occupied themselves with cultural matters. In these they were always entirely dependent. Material up to the present time available shows in Babylon only a continuous succession of five-day weeks (Jchamushtu).2 The hemerologists known to us include the week of seven days only within isolated months. Traces of a recurring week of seven days may be seen in the signification of the nineteenth day, which was distinguished as 7x7 = forty-ninth day, counting from the beginning of the previous month, and in the emphasis (spoken of at p. 31) upon the number fifty (50x7 = 350, i.e. the lunar year) as the sign for the complete year, that is to say, of the cycle of the universe; the number fifty is conferred as a title of honour upon Marduk, and Ninib-Ningirsu, who rules over the north point, the meta of the solar course, dwells in “Temple 50.'”
It is an interesting question whether the Babylonian “ seven days” are connected with the lunar phases or not.3 We cannot
1   A trace of a week of ten days customarily used at the same time may perhaps be found in Exod. xii. 3 ; the month would then be divided into three tens, Lev. xvi. 29, xxiii. 27, xxv. 9 ; the tenth day of the month dedicated to abstinence and rest, a day of reconciliation : comp, also the form of speech !ione day or ten,” Gen. xxiv. 55. It corresponds to the division of the cycle into 36 decani\ 10x36 = 360, the complete cycle, see p. 12.
2   Pp. 64 f.
3   Comp. p. 44. The predominance of the week of seven or of five days, or any other uniform number, rests upon political historical contingencies. In the East the calendar was compiled by the State, and so, under varying circumstances, a varying week predominated. Europe inherits the week of seven days from the Romans, and it reached Rome from the East. Each number is “sacred,” and therefore suitable for the calendar in so far as it rests upon astral calculations. It was the business of calendar science to show how every number it used fitted into the system of the universe.
WEEK OF SEVEN DAYS AND THE SABBATH 199
imagine any period of its civilisation when the week of seven days would not have been connected with the planets; on the other hand, it is not imaginable that in any age it would not have been connected with the idea of the seven planets. What is said in the Nabataean writing Dimeshqi, chap. x. (Chwolsohn, Sscibier, ii. 400), applies to the entire Ancient-East as known from the records : “ The seven planets govern the world.”1 It goes without saying that the number seven in the case of the days of the week would be endowed with a religious signification. Why has the week seven days ? The Israelite answered : Because the world was created in a week of seven days. That is a puiely Oriental idea in Israelitish garb. All the earthly institutions were founded upon celestial precedent. But these religious foundations do not exclude the probability that originally other observations lay at the root of the number seven.
It is obvious that seven is the specially sacred number in the Bible.2 We meet with a connection with the seven planets in many cases: in the ecclesiastical council of the "ohel moied; in the seven messengers of God in Ezek. ix. 2, where the seventh with the writer's inkhorn is reminiscent of Nebo-Mercury; the seven eves and sevens lamps, Zech. iii. 9, iv. 2, and comp. Rev. ii. 1 ; the seven pillars of wisdom, Prov. ix. 1. Possibly also, as has often been conjectured, the origin of the word swear lies in this : nishbci, from sheba\ “ seven.” 3
The Sabbath as the seventh day. “ God blessed the seventh
1   Comp. pp. 15, 38, 66 f. Kugler connects the week of seven days with the moon from the most ancient times, and relegates the rise of the Babylonian seven-day week into an age before they understood how to define the lunar phases. “ Since the fourteenth was the day of the full moon, it was natural to place the first and the last quarter on the seventh and twenty-first days. Hence, in the later astronomical inscriptions, they call the day of the full moon simply the ‘ fourteenth day,’ even though they knew quite well it could fall upon the thirteenth or fifteenth” (extract from a letter to the author).
2   That is to say, the system of division by seven is the foundation of the Biblical conception. That it is seven and no other number (3, 5, or 10) is consequent upon the “scientific” theory which lies at the root of the Biblical laws (of Moses?).
3   Abraham, Gen. xxi. 28 ff., swears by Beersheba, i.e. “seven springs’’ (Pleiades?), and there offers seven lambs. Herodotus, iii. 8, relates that the Arabs ratify their contracts with seven stones sprinkled with blood, calling upon the two chief planet divinities, Dionysos and Urania, that is, sun and moon.
200 THE BIBLICAL RECORD OF CREATION
day, and hallowed it.” Comp. Isa. lviii. 18 : Upon the Sabbath, the holy day, the day of Yahveh, the day of delight, no work may be done. F. Delitzsch, in Babel u. Bibel, i., p. 29, says that “ we have to thank the ancient civilisations of the Euphrates and the Tigris for the blessings contained in the Sabbath, that is to say, in the Sunday rest.” This is only relatively correct. From the foregoing deductions it cannot be doubted that Oriental connections are naturally to be found.
According to the hemerologists known up to the present, the Babylonians had a seventh day which was in the first instance an “ evil day,” upon which many things should not be undertaken because it brought misfortune. They had also a day which they called shabattum, and which they explained to be uni nukh libbi, “ day of peace of heart ” (of the gods). But there is no proof that this shabattum was the seventh day, nor that it was a day of rest in the sense of Isa. lviii. 13.
IV.   R. 32 treats of the seventh day amongst the Babylonians. The regulations certainly do not apply only to the king. On the seventh day, it is said, and on the fourteenth, twenty-first, twenty- eighth, and on the nineteenth (that is, the 7 x 7th day, reckoning from the beginning of the previous month), the regulations are repeated (with the exception of those in square brackets).1
VII.   day [nubattam (dedicated to) Marduk and ZarpanitumJ a favourable day.
Evil day. The shepherd (king or high priest?) of the great people —
Flesh, which is cooked upon coal, meats Avhich with fire (have come in contact) shall he not eat,
he shall not change his coat, he shall not put on clean garments,
He shall pour no libation, the king shall not ascend into a chariot!
he shall not . . , .2 no decision shall be made, in the secret place
no oracle shall speak,
the physician shall not lay his hand upon the sick,
the day is not suitable for any business.
[By night (at break of day) the king shall bring his sacrifice,
Pour libation—and the lifting up of his hands shall be acceptable to God].
1   Comp. Delitzsch, Babel und Bibel, i. pp. 6i ff.
2   Shal-tish (variation, K 3597 in Bezold’s Catalogue, shal-thi-ish) i-tam-me, interpretation not certain.
WEEK OF SEVEN DAYS AND THE SABBATH 201
That this seventh day was also a day of rest certainly does not follow. The inference which Delitzsch draws from the circumstance that shabdtu is synonymous with gamd.ru is not absolutely conclusive.1 The idea of gama.ru to some extent agrees with a day of reconciliation ; for gamd.ru is a technical term for paying off a debt.2 Without doubt its foundation is in some conception which was carried over into the Biblical religion. And even without any cuneiform proof the relationship. seems very probable, if only because of the development of the sabbatical idea in late Jewish times clearly under Babylonian influence,3 that this or that might not be done, because it would bring misfortune.4 And if the Jewish holy day and day of rest has grown out of an Ancient-Oriental unlucky rest- day, it is one of the many strong proofs of the reforming and elevating power of the religion of Yahveh.
The heathen Oriental idea of the seventh day being unlucky, of which we can find proof only in late Judaism, but which certainly existed in the form of a superstition in ancient Israel,5 is undoubtedly connected with the planet of misfortune, Saturn. This is shown in early Christian times by Tacitus, History, v. 4 —perhaps also bv the Talmud designation of Saturn as the star
1   One may perhaps adduce as an argument for the “day of rest” the name nubattum. which the seventh day bears (it is true the third and the sixteenth also). Iv 6l8, 26 (B.A., i. 225), limS nu-bat-te certainly denote “days of rest.” Nubattum is otherwise called “station.” In the epic of (iilgamesh (tablet xi., 318 f., comp. Tablet V., K.B., vi. 162, 252) the wanderers cook after every twenty units of the road (iksupu kusapa), and after every thirty units they make nubattu (“station ” ; I interpreted it so in 1891 in Izdubar-Nimrod; Jensen, K.B., vi. 253: “death-dirge”). If nubattu denotes rest at eventide, that agrees almost with the habit of the desert journeys : * to the mid-day station, ^ in the afternoon to the evening camp. Since kaspu is a double hour, it has certainly to do with gigantic marches, which, however, is nothing very unusual in a myth.
: See Kugler, S. J., Babylon itnd Ckrisientum, p. 16.
3   One has only to compare the Jewish laws of things enjoined and forbidden, with the rules of the Shurpu table, for instance, as they are rendered in Chap. VI.
4   Further detail in Kampf um Babel tmd Bibel, p. 37 f. As a characteristic example we may also add : the fictitious sale in shops with mixed wares during the Passover.
5   In the case of such general conceptions there is no very marked difference between earlier and later Judaism. Differentiation between Judaism before and after the Exile must be given up. The contrast between joy and grief, blessing and cursing, was always present. Friday is to us the holiest day, and yet it is considered an unlucky day.
202 THE BIBLICAL RECORD OF CREATION
of the Sabbath.1 2 Anyone in the Ancient-East speaking of Saturn would think of misfortune as inevitably as we connect light and warmth with the sun. The Jewish tradition noted by Beer in Leben Mosis (manuscript) carries also some proof in regard to this. Moses arranged a day of rest for his countrymen with Pharaoh in Egypt. “What day wilt thou have for it ? ” asks the king. “ The seventh day, sacred to Saturn ; work done upon this day never prospers !"
New material upon this subject has been provided by one of the Lists discovered by Th. Pinches in which the fifteenth day is named as shapattiA That is the day of the full moon, when the moon is at the highest point of its course through the ecliptic (see fig. 15). It may be assumed that, counting backwards and forwards, the eighth and the first and the twenty- second day would be called shapattu, and that therefore in this way the moon provided a seven-day week.3 4 The objections to the connection of the week of seven days with the lunar course are noted at pp. 45 and 198. It would also not agree with a continuous week, but only be a division, beginning afresh with each month as in the Assyrian hemerologies. We therefore assume that the Sabbath is, by its astral source, a planetary day, the day of the mmmus deusA
H. Winckler, in his Religionsgeschichtler und geschichtlicher Orient (J. C. Hinrichs, Leipzig, 1906) treats of the calendar in his conclusion, pp. 55 ff., and is also of opinion that the week of seven days
1   The planet certainly may take its name 'rosy from Sabbath ; see Schurer, Geschichte des jiidischen Volkes, iii. 430.
2   Pinches, shapattu, the Babylonian Sabbath, Proc. of the Soc. of Bibl. Arch., 1904, 51 ff. ; compare with that, Zimmern, Z.D.M.G., 1904, 199 ff., 458 ff. The opinion held by Delitzsch, that it should read shapatti, “ middle (day) of the month,” is not tenable. Shabattn is repeatedly written with the sign which must be read pat.
3   The Avestic calendar notes the 1st and 8th and 15th and 23rd as sacred to Ormuzd. The 23rd (at least according to Jackson in his Handbook of Iranian Philology) puzzles me. One counts twelve months of thirty days, five intercalary days, every hundred and twenty years one intercalary month. The thirty days are divided 14+ 16.
4   Saturn would be held as summits dens in so far as the Sabbath is Saturn’s day. This, in fact, shows in Spanish Judaism, which has retained the clearest connection with the Ancient-Oriental mysteries. The spirit of Saturn inspires the prophet; see Neander, Etwurf eines gnostischen Systems, p. 266.
WEEK OF SEVEN DAYS AND THE SABBATH 203
is not connected with the lunar course, but with the division of time by the seven planets (p. 39). The Sabbath is chiefly the day of full moon, corresponding to the culmination of the lunar course which once in the month touches the heaven of the summits deus. Upon the other hand, the highest point is attained by the ascent of the planet tower, and therefore every seventh day is Sabbath. The character of the Sabbath as Saturn’s day (see p. 202, n. 4), may, however, be known by the Sabbath of the Bible seceding from the teaching of moon-worship and attaching itself to the sun-worship (Saturn-Nergal = sun, see p. 30).1 The Sabbath as seventh day includes, therefore, both—the name corresponds to the lunar course, the connection with Saturn refers to the solar signification, and this entirely agrees with the principle that in the calendar it is not sun or moon separately, but both are equally important.
The text of the statue of Gudea B, 3, 15 ft', bears record of the character of a day as day of rest. It is said at the temple festival of Ninib (to whom in his lunar character the north point, therefore the point of the full moon, belongs (see p. 30), on account of which it is possible it may be treating of a festival of the full moon, therefore of a shapattu):
” No one was struck with the whip, the mother corrected not her child, the householder, the overseer, the labourer .... the work of their hands ceased. In the graves of the city .... no corpse was buried. The Kalu played no psalm, uttered no dirge, the Availing woman let no dirge be heard. In the realm of Lagash no man who had a lawsuit went to the hall of justice. No .... broke into any house.”
1 It cannot be Egyptian, as Winckler takes it, but may correspond to the Babylonian Age of Marduk, which is the Sun Age in contradistinction to the pre- Babylonian Moon Age ; see pp. 72 ff.

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Re: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST (sumer) I
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CHAPTER V
PARADISE
GEN. ii. 8: “ And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in Qedcm [properly speaking, from Qedem], and there he put the man whom he had formed.”
A garden is planted by God in the wilderness.1 Eden is the land where the garden 2 lay. It was only later (for example, Ezek. xxviii. IS) that Eden itself was spoken of as the garden of God, and by popular etymology the word eden, “ wonder,11 is in the name.
The chronicler thinks of the garden as in Babylon. This is distinctly shown by the names of the rivers. “ In Qedem 11 is a celestial direction point, “ eastward11 lies Shinar, Babylonia. But according to the scientific teaching of the idea of the universe and of its development (see pp. 78 and 175), Paradise is a cosmic place, and Eden and Qedem have at bottom cosmic meaning.3 In this sense cdinu, “ the wilderness,1' corresponds
1   Edina appears in one of the so-called Syllabaries of cuneiform literature (Sb) as synonym for tscra, “desert.” Cuneiform sources seem also to supply a geographical conception of “ Eden ” in the name Gu-edin-na. Even if Hommel’s far- reaching hypothesis that Gu-edin-na is the ancient name for Chaldea does not hold, still the hint is very important, as to where Paradise was located, in the mind of the Biblical chronicler. In II. R. 53, 4 Gu-edin-na is named between Nippur and Erech. In IV. R. 21*, No. 2, Rev. xix., the goddess of the Western lands Gu-bar- na ( = Ashrat) is mistress of Gu-edin-na (II. R. 59, Rev. xliii., Nin-gu-edin-na, the wife of Martu). In the lists of the kings of Ur we meet with a river Nar-edin-na, and in the inscriptions of Telloh there is a river Kish-edin-na (complete material in Hommel, Geogr. a. Gesch., 241 ff.).
2   The corresponding Babylonian word for the Hebrew word gan, “garden,” occurs in the plural gannCiti in the subscription of a “garden tablet” which numbers sixty-two garden plants (and the names of six tools) and bears the subscription : Gardens of the (Babylonian) king Merodach-baladan ; see Delitzsch, Hand- worterbach, p. 202.
3   Comp. Winckler, F., iii. 311 ff.
201
PARADISE
205
to the terrestrial universe, the Underworld, from out of which the worlds arise; that is to say, ocean, in which the Underworld is a topos, in a narrow sense (see p. 8).1 Qedem is the further side, therefore by the Kibla answering to the south, the point whence the worlds arise (p. 32), the under half of the world. Adam dwelling in Eden and mankind proceeding thence, corresponds to the Babylonian teaching, according to which Adapa is made in Eridu at the mouth of the rivers (this also cosmic). That the chronicler knew the cosmic meaning2 3 is shown at chap. xi. 2: 44 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from Qedem, they found a plain in the land of Shinar; ” possibly also chap. ii. 8 : “ He planted the garden in Eden, from Qedem.” 3 And the Biblical garden is the dwelling-place of Yahveh, corresponding to the Mountain of God, the throne of the divinity. Therefore it is to be thought of also as a sacred mountain, as may clearly be seen in Ezekiel’s description of Paradise.
Chap. iii. 8: 41 Vahveh ivalked in the garden in the cool of the evening.”
Later, in treating of the Tree of Life, etc., we shall meet with many Babylonian presentments of a Paradise in which the divinity dwells, also man, who stands in close relation to the divinity.
Since every 44 land ” is a microcosmos it follows that we find countless repetitions of Paradise. Eridu 4 in South Babylonia is an earthly picture of Paradise (see pp. 105, 214); also Babylon. The popular etymological meaning of the name as Bab-ilu, u Gate of God ” (“ High door ”), denotes the city as an earthly copy of the celestial throne of God (see Gen. xxviii., Jacob’s dream). The sacred cedar mountain and cedar wood,
1   The Paradise where Gilgamesh, the Babylonian Noah, finds his ancestor, is beyond the month of the rivers, after passing over the River of Death. “ Eden ” is a play of words; “in Eden” never once quite answers to Babylon, it lies beyond the desert to the east.
2   The time corresponds to the place; qedem, “past ages,” also betrays in Hebrew the knowledge of the cosmic meaning contained in the idea.
3   The interpretation “eastwards” (Ges.-Buhl) or “far in the east ” (Gunkel) is forced. In a purely geographical sense tniqqedem is ‘from eastward,” Isa. ix. 12 ; that has no meaning in this passage. Also in Gen. iii. 24 Qedem bears the meaning “in front of” = southward, not eastward ; see p. 218, n. 5.
i The rivers Euphrates and Tigris formerly flowed into the sea divided by Eridu.
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PARADISE
with the “ throne of the gods, the holy of holies of the Irnini,1' where the Elamite hero Humbaba “ moves with pleasant steps upon smooth ways ” is, according to the meaning of the epic, possibly Babylon, which was once under Elamite dominion.1 In the Biblical range of vision Damascus is a microcosmic Paradise with its sacred rivers (2 Kings v. 12), also Tyre (Ezek. xxviii. 2 ff.); and in ancient Canaanite time the district of Sodom and Gomorrha (Gen. xiii. 10, where “ like the land of Egypt” is a commentary). The Biblical chronicler in Gen. iii. describes the Paradise of a more ancient age, in days before the Israelite era. In the ancient Israelite era Bethel was held as central point of the universe; in historic times Zion-Moriah is the Throne of God; see Ezek. xlvii. 1 ft. Ezekiel also knew of the cosmic Paradise (Eridu), Ezek. xxviii. 13 (p. 216); it is even possible to read Eridu instead of Eden.
We have a description of the cosmic Paradise in the Underworld—that is to say, in the Ocean—in the epic of Gilgamesh, where the hero finds a garden of the gods with miraculous trees bearing precious stones, and beyond the flood of Death the dwelling of Ut-napishtim, who with his wives has “entered into the assembly of the gods ” since the Deluge, and now lives “ afar at the mouth of the rivers.” Here is the “bathing-place” where the leprous (?) hero becomes “ pure as snow ” after the two inhabitants have through magic arts given him “ life.” Here may be found the plant which makes the old man young again 2 (see p. 215). We hear of no other inhabitants, but we may take it for granted the Babylonians would think of this Elysium as peopled with many more. It is said of Enmeduranki in the same way that he was “ called to the company of the gods” (p. 51).
1   See Izdubar-Nimrod, p. 23. According to Arrian and Strabo, Alexander the Great felled cypress trees in the sacred groves of Babylon for his navy.
2   Jensen, II. B., vi., has taken some pains to make the story more intelligible. But I may refer to my interpretation which appeared in 1886, Assyrisch-baby- lonische Vorstelliuigen vom Leben nach dem Tode, where, for the first time, I gave an interpretation of the continuation of the story of the Deluge, revised later in 1892 in Izdubar-Nimrod, I had here specially already interpreted the meaning of the miraculous plant, and I can only partly accept Jensen’s interpretation. Zimmern also, K, A, T,, 3rd ed., 577 ff., reverts in some points to the old meaning suggested by me.
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207
There is a surprising parallel in the fables of Enoch. Like Gilgamesh, Enoch reaches Paradise beyond the Erythrasian Sea. Enoch lxv. 2 relates how the hero goes to the end of the world, and meets with his grandfather Enoch: he does not wish to go below with him (just as Gilgamesh bewails his lot to his ancestor and fights against death); lxv. 9 it says: “ Thereupon my grandfather Enoch seized me with his hands, raised me up, and said to me,” etc. It would be worth while studying the cosmic journey in Lucian’s satirical Vera; Histories for its acquaintance with the Ancient-Oriental conception of the universe. In it also a paradise is described, also a city with seven gates.
Of those outside the Bible we may also mention here the Persian presentment of Paradise. The traditional “ Paradise ” (Neh. ii. 8) takes its name from the Zend Parideza, place of the blessed in the Persian heroic age. Fifteen heroes dwell there, who once fought the monsters, and who will again take part in the last combat.1
THE TREES OF PARADISE (Gen. ii. 9)
In so far as Paradise is considered from a cosmic point of view, it represents the entire universe in miniature. The two trees represent the Upper- and Under-worlds. The Biblical chronicle also takes over the cosmic trees. The “ tree of life ” and the “ tree of knowledge11 (of good and evil), according to chap. iii. ver. 3, grow in the midst of the garden. Supernatural qualities belong to both : it is said of the “ tree of life” in chap. iii. ver. 22, “who eats thereof shall live for ever11; and of the tree of knowledge it is stated at ver. 5, “ who eats thereof shall be as God.” It is no longer tenable that one of the trees is a later addition, since we learn the meaning of both trees from the Babylonian cosmos.
The corollary “ of good and evil ” and the corresponding amplification in chap. iii. ver. 5 (“ye shall be as gods”) “ knowing; good and evil,” seems to us to be an Israelite theo- logumenon. But precisely this corollary contains the ethical idea which raises the story in the third chapter of Genesis so far above the popular cosmic myth. The idea in ver. 22 is also theologumenon, where the reason for the expulsion is given : 1 See G. Husing in Goll, llythologie, Sth ed., p. 312.
208
PARADISE
“lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live for ever.” Does the story mean that before this, man might eat, unforbidden, of the tree of life ?
The “ tree of life ” is a universal idea.1 In the Bible vve
find it in Prov. iii. 18, xi. 30, xiii. 12, xv. 4; Ezek. xxviii. 13; Rev. ii. 7, xxii. 2. The passages in Ezekiel show that the Biblical
scribe knew of the cosmic Paradise as well as its earthly replica. The reliefs upon an altar found by Sellin at Ta'annek, in the plains of Jezreel, represent the Tree of Life with two ibex and a boy wrestling with a serpent.2
In this also the Biblical story shows the influence of the “ Babylonian cosmos,” and the underlying teaching is made use of. In the cosmic myth the two trees represent life and death, Overworld and Underworld. Consequently they appear in the cosmic legends as sun and moon, the former representing death and the latter life,3 or vice versa} In the Adapa myth they are both personified as Tammuz and Gishzida at the gate of the heaven of Anu; comp. p. 126, n. 1. According to the Gudea Cyl. B, ix. 1, Ningishzida is “ Lord of the tree to the right ”;
 
FIG. 64.—Sabsean votive tablet. Offering in thanksgiving for a good harvest.
1   Compare the valuable studies by Wunsche, “Die Sagen vom Lebensbaum und Lebenswasser,” in the series Ex oriente lux, Band I., Hefte 2 and 3.
2   Even if the altar itself is of later date (eighth century), the bridge stone is certainly old (Sellin). A Sabsean sacrificial table of Amran (British Museum) also shows the tree of life with animals ; see fig. 64. The Western religious world uses the tree of life as symbol of life triumphing over death.
3   According to G. Hilsing, loc. cit., 313, Homa is the moon as blossom of the tree of life (see p. 210), the divine power of the drink of immortality.
4   P. no. Ephrem the Syrian calls the tree of life “the sun of Paradise” (Wunsche, loc. cit,, p. 7). For Helios and Selene as trees of Paradise and highest point of the zodiac, see p. 24. In the cosmic cult of the high priest Uriin and Thummim in the midst of the twelve precious stones (signs of the zodiac) correspond to life and death, yea and nay, light and darkness.
THE TREES OF PARADISE
209
by this, therefore, Taiiirauz would be “ Lord of the tree to the left ” (tree of death); in fact, he is called “ Lord of kinnuri,” i.e. the Underworld, and “ true son of apsu.”
For the interpretation we should also consider the kind of trees. Mythically, the vine and the fig tree stand for Overworld and Underworld, life and death. The intrinsically unsuitable “ fig leaves,” from which the first garments were made, possibly owe their origin to the fig tree being the tree of knowledge.1 The vine is tree of life (the ideogram being “wood of life,'11 as wine is “drink of life”; see p. 216). The
 
FIG. 65.—Assyrian seal cylinder, with the sacred tree. Brit. Museum.
“ apple tree ” also corresponds to the myth ; here there is a connection with the “ apple of love.”2 In Judaic legends the olive is the Tree of Life.3
1   See Winckler, F., iii. 3S9. By “ knowing,” death enters. The lunar cycle presents the cosmic phenomenon which the “knowing” (at the full moon), “the marriage,” and the following “fall into the power of the Underworld ” illustrate ; see p. 36, fig. 15.
2   Pomegranate, “apple of Paradise” (tomato?) is meant. In Gen. xxx. 14 ff. Rachel gives Jacob to her sister Leah for one night for the price of some mandrakes, love-apples, or the magic love charm (Septuagint, (irj\a pavSpayopwv ; Vulgate, mandragorre ; comp. Stuclcen, Astralmythen, p. 5), and Leah conceives Issachar. Comp. Song of Songs, vii. 14, where the scent of the apple impels to love. Note further the apple in the riddle at the festival of Adonis at Samos.
3   For vine, see B.N.T., 33; for olive, see Wiinsche, loc. cit. The mythic Pythios, son of Atys (!), in Herodotus, vii. 27, meets Xerxes, gives him presents, and tells him it is he who gave to his father “ the golden palm branch and the
VOI.. I,   14
210
PARADISE
Both terrestrial and celestial worlds arise from the ocean. Therefore we find a Paradise in the water realm and in the celestial universe, which there is reflected in the microcosmos of the earth, where each “ land ” has its Paradise. The two trees, then, in the new world which has arisen from out the primeval ocean, represent the two halves of the world—that is to say, of the cycle: Overworld and Underworld, life and death, the power of light and the power of darkness.
The tree, however, also appears as Tree of the World, representing the whole world itself, arising out of the Underworld
 
(water realm).1 It seems that Ezekiel was familiar with the presentment of the Tree of the World, whose roots are in Tehom and whose summit grows up into the heavens, and he compares Egypt, the Underworld land, with it.
Ezek. xxxi. 3 ff. : “ Behold ... a cedar [stood] in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature ; and his top was among the thick clouds . . . cedars in the
golden vine,” that is to say, the rulership of the world ; see Mticke, Vom Enphrat znm Tiber, p. 92. To this cycle of ideas belong further the olive trees (Sach iv.), cedar and vine, beneath which flowed a fountain which became a devastating flood, syr. Baruch xxxvi. ; and the miraculous tree of the seven fire mountains, Enoch xxiv.
1 Winckler, F., iii. 312. In the heavens the Milky Way corresponds to the tree of the world, apparently stretching four wide branches over the water-region ; see Stucken, Asiralmythen, p. 72, and Hommel, G, G, G., p. 366.
THE TREES OF PARADISE
211
garden of God could not hide him, the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the plane trees were not as his branches, nor was any tree in the garden of God like unto him in his beauty. I made him fair by the multitude of his branches; so that all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God envied him. ”
The Persian cosmos 1 2 places primeval man in a place which appears later as the Mountain of God (Haraburzati, localised on earth in Damavand). Haraburzati (“high mountain”) is in the Worukasham Sea, and upon it grows the Tree of the World, named Homa because of its golden blossom. The roots of the tree drink from the spring from whence the rivers flow out over the earth.
In connection with the Babylonian “ Tree of Life,” that is to say, “ Tree of the World,” we may also consider the following material:—
1. The sacred tree as portrayed on Babylonian seal cylinders and on the reliefs of Assyrian palaces; a sort of mixture of a date tree and conifer. It bears a fruit? which is frequently being grasped at by eagles oi* by genii with men’s heads. Also the cylinder called “ the Fall ” shows the fruit upon the tree (see fig. 69, and comp. figs. 65-67). In other representations the genii carry the same fruit in one hand (therefore, probably, bringing it to mankind), whilst in the other they have a basket-like vessel upon the front of which the same picture is repeated. Since the fruit undoubtedly has its source in the Tree of Life, we may conjecture that the vessel (see pp. 216 ft“.) contains “Water of Life,” like the karpat egubbft, “vessel for consecrated water,” from out of which, according to IV. R. 57. 166, Marduk distributes grace, and in which, according to IV. R. 60. 21 a, water is drawn from the stream of the temple of Marduk. There is a description of such a Tree of Life in the mutilated passage of Ezek. xli. 17 f. (Ezek. xxiii. 14 shows that the imagination of the prophet is filled with pictures from Babylonian palaces):
1   The following is according to G. Htising, loc. at., 312.
2   Comp. Eb. Schrader, Berl. Ai. der Wiss. Monatsbericht, 1881, 413 ff. The fruit is probably the date panicle. It is also to be found as decoration on the accurate drawings of the brick enamel reliefs in Babylon. Doubtless the gigantic panicle of the Damasus court of the Vatican is related.
212
PARADISE
“ And it was made (round about the wall) with cherubim and palm trees; and a palm tree was between cherub and cherub.”1 Also the carved walls of the Temple (1 Kings vii. 29) representing “cherubim and palm trees and open flowers/’ and the “lions, oxen, and cherubim,” are after the Babylonian pattern.
2.   The sacred cedar in the cedar wood, that is to say, upon the cedar mountain, in the sanctuary of the Irnini. The com-
 
FIG. 67.—Relief from Sargon’s palace at Ivhorsabad.
panions Gilgamesh and Eabani wander to the cedar wood where Hutnbaba guards the sacred cedar :2
To keep the cedar unharmed (shullumu),
Bel placed him to make men fear;
and whosoever entered his wood swooned away.
It is said that when they came near (tablet w, col. i. of the epic):
They stand gazing at the wood, gazing at the height of the cedars,
1   Comparison with the pictures shows that the Hebrew kerub denotes the various figures round the tree of life. Exod. xxxvi. 8, they are worked on the carpets; Exod. xxxvi. 35, in the curtains; 1 Kings vi. 23 ff., cherubim in the temple.
2   K.B., vi. 156 ff. ; previously Izdnbar-Nimrod, p. 23.
THE TREES OF PARADISE
213
gazing at the entrance of the wood,
Avhere Humbaba paced with great strides.
Paths are made, smooth is the road,
they gaze at the cedar mountain, the dwelling- place of the gods, the holy of holies of Irnini.
A cedar rears its stateliness before the mountain,
Pleasant is its shade, filling with joy ....
According to the foregoing account a river seems to spring, that is to say, to flow in the neighbourhood of this Paradise (sacred tree and holy water). The Elamite name Humbaba may lead to a localisation in Choaspes, the river of Susa, from which, according to Herodotus, i. 108, only the kings of Persia might drink.1 But it must always be remembered that it is a cosmic idea which may, in fact, be localised everywhere.
We spoke at pp. 210 f. of the “garden of God11 of Ezekiel, where a wonderful cedar is the chief ornament.
3.   The garden in the sea with miraculous trees on tablet ix. of the epic of Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh comes to where the maiden Siduri Sabitu dwells upon the “ throne of the sea,” - where grow “ trees of the gods.” Of it is said :
Samtu-stones it bears as fruit,
the branches are hung therewith, lovely to behold,
Lapis lazuli is the crown (?).
It bears fruit precious to the sight.3
As the cedar in the sanctuary of the Irnini is suggestive of the cedar in the “garden of God,” Ezek. xxxi. 3 ft*., so this park of “trees of the gods” is suggestive of Ezek. xxviii. 13 (address to the king of Tyre):
Thou wast in Eden 4 the garden of God; every precious stone
1   See Jensen, A~.B., vi 437, 441 f.
u Jensen, K.B.. vii. 469, recalls the Queen of Sheba, rich in diamonds, but at pp. 575 ff. abandons the comparison. For the sense in which Siduri may be taken as Sabsean, see Winckler, Kritische Sc hr if ten, ii. 110.
3   See Izdnbar-Nimrod, p. 30 ; at variance with Jensen, K. B., vii. 20S f. In the story of Abu Muhammed (Thousand and One Nights) the hero has little trees with emerald leaves and pearl fruit; they come from the copper city, where a maiden sits upon a golden chair, in the midst of a garden of golden trees, bearing fruit of costly precious stones, pearls and corals. One sees how the material of the fables spreads and becomes disjointed, without being able to speak more definitely of borrowed literature.
4   We may almost take it that it should be read as in Gen. ii. 10 (p. 217) Eridu.
214
PARADISE
was thy covering, the cornelian, topaz, jasper, chrysolite, shoham, onyx, sapphire, ruby,1 “and of gold” was the workmanship of thy . . . .; in the day that thou wast created they were prepared. I
set thee as the . . . . ; thou wast upon the holy mountain of God, thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
4.   At Eridu, the sanctuary of Ea, therefore at the place where Adapa was made (see p. 183), there is a paradisaical sacred grove.
At the conclusion of one of the Incantations of Eridu (IV. R. 15 = Cun. Texts, xvi. 42 flf.), in which the Fire-god prays to Ea for mediation, through Marduk, the son of Eridu, it is said :
In Eridu there grows a dusky palm (?), it springs in a clear place ; it sparkles like the uknu stone, it overshadows the ocean; the path of Ea is in Eridu, full to overflowing, his dwelling is in the place of the Underworld ; his habitation is the resting-place of Gur (Bau ?) ;
Into the glittering house, which is shady as the wood, dare no man enter;
there (dwell) Shamash (and) Tannnuz between the mouths of the two streams,
the gods have .... the cherubim (ilu gud-dub) of Eridu, planted this kishkanu-tree and laid upon sick men the exorcism of apsu,
and brought it upon the head of erring men.2 The often-mentioned cult of water at Eridu is a proof in itself that the Water of Life was in this Paradise of Eridu. The Assyrian exorcisms of the Maqlu series (vii. 115 f.) explicitly declare this:
I have washed my hands, cleansed my body in the water of the pure spring which is made in Eridu.
1   According to the Septuagint exactly twelve precious stones ; comp. Zimmern, K.A.T., 3rd ed., 629. The crown of Apollo occasionally has twelve gems. Upon the twelve precious stones of the high priest, see p. 138, ii.
a Hommel, G.G.G., 276.   “The guardians of Paradise plucked a branch from
the tree at Eridu and healed sick men ” ; see Thompson, The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, i. p. liii. ff. (the Garden of Eden).
 
FIG. 68.—Tree of life, with genii. Phoenician (?), certainly not a Babylonian cylinder. After a wax impression in the author’s possession.
THE TREES OF PARADISE
215
5.   The magic plant sh'ibu itstsahir amelu, “ though old, the man shall become young,11 of the place where the Babylonian Noah resides (see p. 205, n. 1). Gilgamesh desires to bring it to Erech, to eat thereof and to renew his youth, but on the journey homewards a ncshu-sha qaqqari (serpent ?) at a fountain takes the plant from him.
6.   Nearly related to this “ magic plant11 of the holy island is the “ plant of life,11 which is the gift of the gods. In one hymn to Marduk (Craig, Rel. Texts, i. 59) he is regarded as the possessor of the “ plant of life.11 In another hymn 1 he is himself called shammu baldti, “ plant of life.11
Assyrian kings were fond of comparing their rule with the health-bringing qualities of this plant. Thus Adad-nirari says that God has made his “ shepherd rule11 beneficent to the Assyrians as “ the plant of life.'1 And Esarhaddon wishes that his rule may be as tolerant as “the plant of life11 to mankind. In one of the Assyrian letters2 3 it is shown besides that not only the eating, but also the smell of the plant is of account: “ We were as dead dogs, then the king made us again alive (i.e. pardoned), in that he laid the plant of life to our noses.113
7.   Finally, we may mention the Babylonian ambrosia of the gods. There is an ancient Babylonian name Lugal-kurum-zigum, “ the king is heavenly food.11 In the Adapa myth “ bread11 and “ water of life 11 are given in the heaven of Anu 4 (in the earthly sanctuary of Eridu Adapa bakes the bread and prepares the water of Eridu). At the banquet of the gods in the epic Enuma elish5the gods eat bread (asluiati) and drink wine. Also the “water11 which Adapa “prepares,11 and the water of life which
1   K 8961, Z 5, Hehn (B.A. V., 360 f.).
2   Harper Assyrian Letters, 771.
3   In Yoma 72b the Thora is a 0”n DD (Assyrian sammat, “pleasant scent”), “ plant of life” for the good, a njva DO, “ plant of death ” for the evil. Here also it may refer to smelling. Comp. 2 Cor. ii. 16 : a savour of death, a savour of life. In the Targum in Cant. vii. 8 the prayer of Daniel and his friends smells pleasant as fruit of Paradise. Further, in Gen. viii. 21 (“ God smelled the sweet savour”), p. 267, and B.N. 71, p. 73.
4   Further heavenly gifts, see water of life (wine ?), garment, and oil ; comp. Ps. xxiii. (“thou anointest my head with oil”) and the parable of the “wedding garment,” Matt. xxii. 11 f.
3   A". 7’., 115.
216
PARADISE
is set before him in heaven, may be taken as a special drink of the gods. Wine, which in the Old Testament is a gift of God to “ make glad the heart of man,11 is, in Babylon, denoted ideo- graphically as “ drink of life11 or “ wood of life.11
WATER OF LIFE AND THE RIVERS OF PARADISE
In the Biblical description of Paradise nothing is apparently said about the “ water of life.11 But the conception is latent:
1.   In the “mist111 (Gen. ii. 6), so far as it originally belongs to the description of the garden.
2.   In the river of Paradise ; Gen. ii. 10.
Ezek. xlvii. ff. shows that the Israelites knew of a paradise with a Tree of Life and Water of Life. There it speaks of the waters which flow' out from the Temple, the representation of the throne of God (pp. 57 f.), by whose streams the Dead Sea v'as healed:
Upon the bank shall grow every tree with healing fruit; - the leaf shall not wither, neither shall the fruit thereof fail; it shall bring forth new fruit every month, because the waters thereof issue out of the sanctuary : and the fruit thereof shall l^e for meat and the leaf thereof for healing.
Also Zach. xiv. 8 is to be noted, where in the age of Paradise “ living waters11 are to flow out from Jerusalem.
Compare further Rev. xxii. 1 :
He show'ed me a river of water of life, proceeding out of the throne of God .... on this side of the river, and on that was the tree of life.
Without being directly connected with the throne of God, water of life is often spoken of. In the Babylonian texts it appears especially in the cult of Ea. Eridu, the place of worship of Ea, at the mouth of the rivers, corresponds to the cosmic Paradise in the ocean;3 comp. Maqlu, vii. 115 fl, and p. 214, above; further, IV. R. 25, col. iv. :4
1   P. 187, “river” ; better, according to Holzinger, Genesis, p. 24, to translate ix as in the Septuagint, etc., as “ fountain.”
2   R.V. “ every tree for meat.”
3   P. 214.
4   According to Zimmern, Beitrdge, 139, the text refers to ceremonies (opening of the mouth, and washing the mouth) at the dedication of a statue of a god; see also Zimmern’s Orient. Studien, p. 962.
WATER OF LIFE AND RIVERS OF PARADISE 217
He brought in clear water;
Ninzadim, Anu’s jeweller, has made thee ready with his clean hands;
Ea took thee at the place of cleansing,
at the place of cleansing he took thee,
with his clean hands he took thee,
in (?) milk and honey he took thee,
with w'ater of exorcism he sprinkled thy mouth,
he opened thy mouth by enchantment:
“Be clean as heaven, be clean as earth, shine like the innermost heaven.”
In the “descent of Ishtar to Hades'” we find a spring of water of life in the Underworld, and in the epic of Gilgamesh there is a washing-place, which cleanses from leprosy, upon the Holv Island beyond the River of Death.1
Jewish theology and New Testament phraseology both make use of the “ water of life.'” In a fragment of an apocryphal gospel2 Jesus says, He and His disciples are cleansed by “ water of life ”; and also there is mention made of a hagneuterion (cleansing-place) as part of the Temple. The Rabbis speak of “ water of life” and “ spring of health ” (o^n '*D, nifitim The drawing of water from the Pool of Siloam (Tractat Succa,
iv.   7, with reference to Isa. xii. 3 in the Babylonian Gemara Succa, 486) ascribes magical power to the water.3 John iv. 10 ff., vii. 37 f., is connected with the conception of water of life; and in Rev. vii. 17, xxi. 6, xxii. 17, the risen Christ leads them that overcome to the water of life.1
The Rivers of Paradise
Gen. ii. 10: “And a river went out of Eden5 to water the garden, from thence it parted into four river courses ” (properly
1   See “ Holle und Paradies,” A.O., i. 3, 2nd ed.
2   Discovered by Grenfell and Hunt at Oxyrhynchus in South Egypt; not yet published.
3   Also Jordan had healing power. 2 Kings v., Naaman was healed of his leprosy by dipping seven times in Jordan, and he marvels that Jordan should be better than the rivers of Damascus, Abana and Pharpar, which were equally held to be rivers of Paradise. Comp. Boissier, Documents, 33, where, as cure for the sting 01 scorpions, “he shall go down to the river (Euphrates?) and dip himself seven times.”
4   Comp.   73 ff.
5   Eridu? Seep. 213, 11. 4.
218
PARADISE
speaking, fountains).1 The cosmic Paradise is surrounded by ocean. The river is the celestial water realm. From the cosmic Paradise spring four fountains, which upon entering the terrestrial world appear as rivers. The earthly Paradise of the pre-Israelite era (for the chronicles of the primeval stories refer to eras before the Israelite age; it was later that Canaan came into prominence as a microcosmos of the celestial world) is designated as four countries, surrounded by four rivers :
1.   Pishon, -which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold .... and bdellium {rubber) and shoham stones.
By this, Arabia, that is to say a part of it, is certainly meant.2
2.   Gihon, that compasseth the whole land of Cush.
That is, the valley of the Nile, Upper Egypt. Gihon is the upper part of the Nile. Egypt is included in it, perhaps purposely suppressed.3
8.   Hiddekel,4 which flow's south 5 from Asshur.
4.   Perat, without comment, that is, Euphrates,6 the river of Babylon.
The two first-named countries with their rivers correspond to the Underworld, the two last to the Upperworld.
1   Rosh cannot be called “ arm of a river,” it is much more river head, fountain ; Greek, x-tyrod nora/Mov ; Latin, caput aquce; Old German, Brunnenhaupt, everywhere the ceremonious expression for the fabulous source of the waters that spring from the depths of the earth ; see for this and the following, Winckler, F., iii. 313.
2   See Siegfried in Guthe, Bibelwortcrbuch, under Havila.
3   When the chronicle was written were the Cushites perhaps rulers in Egypt ? Esarhaddon, conqueror of Arabia and Egypt, calls himself King of the Kings of Muser and Cush. In this designation Egypt and Ethiopia must equally have been included in Cush.
4   Only in Dan. x. 4 again. That the Israelites meant the Tigris is shown by Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 25-26 (Tigris named together with Pishon and Euphrates in this passage). Assyrian, Idiqlat, II. R. 50, 7 ; according to the Behistun inscription the river of Assyria was called Diqlat (comp. Targum-Talmud Diglat). Our word Tigris reproduces the Persian pronunciation.
5   “ Qidtnat ashur, that is to say, before = southward from Assur, not ‘eastward,’ for the Tigris never flowed eastward of Assyria, it forms the southern boundary of the country” ; Winckler, F., iii. 314. Comp, above, p. 205.
6   Babylonian purattu, Ancient Persian ufratus, Arabic fur At. Isa. viii. 7 ; Gen. xv. 18, “the river,” as the Babylonians themselves ideographically designated it, “the water.”
THE RIVERS OF PARADISE   219
Many efforts have been made to localise the Biblical Paradise according to the ancient maps.1
Various solutions may be suggested, each one of them relatively coiTect, for in every country the cosmic Paradise was localised. The Biblical chronicler is thinking of the neighbourhood of the Euphrates and the Tigris, and the cosmic qedem (south, celestial water region)2 presents itself to him in the “eastward” situated Babylonia. In this there is strong evidence, in mv opinion, that Israel was fully aware of the original Babylonian homeland. According to Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 25, Pishon was considered in later ages as a principal river, together with Euphrates and Tigris.3
1 Comp, chiefly Delitzsch, IVo lag das Paradics
3 Pp. 204 f.
3   To my mind there is no solution of the question “where was Paradise situated?” in the identification of the four rivers of Paradise with the four rivers which in primeval ages flowed apart into the Persian Gulf (Jensen, Kosmol., 507 ff.), making the Ulai (now Karun) = Pishon, and the Uknu (now Kercha) = Gihon. According to Hommel, Aufs. und Abh., 326 ff., and G.G.G., 272, 2S9 f., it is shown that the Babylonians localised terrestrially the four sacred rivers by the naming four divine rivers : II. R. 56, 26-29, comp. V. R. 22, 27 ff. According to Jensen, as the “ wife ” and “ son ” of the River-god follows, it is not here a case of four names of the llu Naru, the River-god. Hommel has drawn attention to, and believes it can be proved, that in the South Arabian inscriptions the same presentment of four rivers is met with ; see Aufs. u. Abh., 273 ff, and G.G.G., 145 and 298, n. 1. If this is correct, it is a proof of a Paradise localised in the Arabian country in question ; Hommel finds this significant in regard to the Biblical Paradise, as he takes it that the Babylonian and Arabian lists, as also Gen. ii., are dealing with the same territory, south-west of Eridu.
CHAPTER VI
THE FALL
(Gen. iii.)
No Babylonian text corresponding to the story of the Fall has yet been found. The notable seal cylinder, fig. 69,1 is
not explicable with any certainty. The tree with its two fruits is certainly the tree of life, but the two seated and clothed (!) figures are not reaching to take the fruit. One of them wears the horned head-dress exclusively used for the gods. The line behind the figure sitting on the left is obviously a serpent,2 but its position does not correspond with the place it would
 
FIG. 69.—Tree of life, with divine beings and serpent. Babylonian seal cylinder, Brit. Museum.
hold in a drawing of the Fall. On the other hand, the picture is reminiscent of the scene at the end of tablet ii. of the epic of Gilgamesh. The Babylonian Noah and his wife (deified figures) have the disposal of the plant of life. Gilgamesh takes away with hint a bushel of it, but a serpent at the fountain (Underworld!) robs him of the precious possession. One picture represents the tree of life and the serpent in the background as its guardian. A relationship
1   British Museum, No. 89, 326.
2   The view put forward by Oppert, Halevy, and others, that it is only an ornamentation, is not tenable. Our reproduction of the picture leaves no doubt that it is a serpent.
220
THE FALL
221
between the fable and the Biblical tale is, broadly speaking, very possible.1
Traces of acquaintance with the story of the Fall can be identified in individual points. The name of the river An - mush - tin-tir-dub, II. R. 51, 44a, may be translated “ River of the serpent-god, who destroys the dwelling of life,11 but the name is found in an enumeration where the connection tells nothing. That from the beginning the woman is the tempter seems to be presupposed in text D.T., 67,2 which speaks of a maiden, “ the mother of sins,11 who breaks forth in tears and who later, according to the yet fragmentary and difficult texts, lies in the dust, stricken by the deadly glance of the deity.
 
The supposition of a Fall is a definite divine revelation to mankind. There is no Babylonian parallel to it. Certainly the Babylonian ideal world corresponds to the derivation of all laws from the divinity. Hammurabi places his laws in connection with the Sun-god, he even takes upon himself the character of law-giving Sun-god. The stone of the law found in Susa3 declares how Hammurabi received the divine inspiration. But upon the concluding tablet of the epic Enuma
1   Fig. 70 shows a Babylonian seal cylinder in the author’s possession upon which between the seated divinity and the figure approaching in prayer there appears to be an upright serpent; compare with this the serpent in fig. 27. The genuineness of the seal cylinder is doubtful. Notwithstanding this, we give a reproduction because it may be an imitation of an antique.
2   See Delitzsch, B.B., i., 4th ed., 70.
3   See Exod. xx.

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Re: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST (sumer) I
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222
THE FALL
elish it is explicitly said that Marduk shall bring the commands of Ea1 to mankind :
They shall be held fast and the "First” shall teach them/2 the wise and the learned shall ponder them together !
The father shall transmit them, he shall teach them to the son The ear of the shepherd and of the guardian (?) shall he open, that he may rejoice over the Lord of the gods, Marduk, that his land may prosper, that it may go well with himself1 His word stands fast, his command shall not be changed; the word of his mouth no other god changes.
If he look angry, if he turn not his neck (in mercy),
If he reprove, if he be wrathful, no god opposes him.
The high-hearted, broad-minded.
Before sacrilege and sin.
[Five further lines are mutilated.]
Upon a fragment K 3364 + 7897 (— C.T., xiii. 29 f.) there are some moral exhortations, of which it is explicitly said that they are written upon a table:3
To thy God thou shalt have a heart of the .... this it is, that is due to the deity.
Prayer, beseeching, and casting down of the countenance
shalt thou . . . .4 bring to him there,
and running over shalt thou .... make it.
In learning (?) it, look upon the tablet; the fear of God brings mercy, sacrifice increases life and prayer .... the sins.5
To him, who fears the gods, whose foundation is not . . . ,, whoso feareth the Anunnaki, prolongs [his life].
Against friend and companion speak not [evil].
1 Comp. pp. 50 f. above, speaking of books and tablets by means of which divine wisdom and laws were conveyed to mankind.
- That is, Marduk, and then, in wider sense, primeval man, or the first of the sages of the heroic age.
:1 Delitzsch, Weltschopfungsepos, pp. 19, 54 f., HI f., includes this in the epic Enuma elish with very questionable correctness, and speaks of "admonitions of the Creator god to the first of mankind.” Delitzsch’s translation is very free and not without arbitrary corrections. In discussions upon the passages it is curious that the important mention of the table from which one is to learn has been overlooked up to the present time.
4   Ud-da-at. Delitzsch, early in the morning.
5   The second Jewish New Year’s precept says that repentance, prayer, and almsgiving avert evil circumstances.
THE FALL
223
Meanness speak not, friendliness (?)....
When thou dost promise, then give ....(?) when thou encouragest (?) . . . .!
Lamentations for sins and prayers for deliverance from “ sin ” and “ punishment for sin ” are to be largely found in Babylonian religious literature. “From the great sins which I have committed from my youth up, deliver me, destroy them seven times ; may thy heart, like unto the heart of a father and of the mother who bore me, return to his place, I will be thine obedient servant, O Marduk," is said in a litany. “ May the sins of my father and grandfather, of my mother and grandmother, of my family, of my kindred, and of my relations come near to me no more.'”1 We add some passages from the Babylonian penitential psalms (A-slii-sha-ku-ga = “ Lamentation for the quieting of the heart ”):2
IV. R. 10: But may the storm in the heart of my God attain to quiet ....
Such, that to my God would be an abomination, have I unwittingly eaten,
upon such, that is to my goddess a horror, have I unwittingly trodden,
0   Lord, my sins are many, great are my offences.
God, whom I know, do not knovr, my sins are many,
great are my offences.
Goddess, whom I know, do not know, my sins are many, great are my offences.
The sins which I committed, I know not,
The offence, that I have done, I know not.
The abomination which I have eaten, I know not;
The horror, upon which I have trodden, I know not.
The Lord in the anger of his heart looked evil at me.
1   sought for help, but no one took me by the hand ;
I wept, but no one came to my side.
I cried aloud, but no one heard me ;
I am full of pain, overwhelmed, cannot look up.
I turn me to my merciful god, I pray loudly ;
I kiss the feet of my goddess, touch them.
1   King, Babylonian Magic, No. n (Hehn, A. B., v. 365 f.).
2   Comp. H. Zimmern, Babylonische Busspsalmen, 1885, and A.O., vii. 3 (“ Babyl. Hymnenund Gebete”), and the work of the Assyriologist and theologian Hehn, Stinde tend Erlosung nack biblischer tend babylonischer Attschaieieng, 1903.
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To the God, whom I know, do not know, I pray aloud. To the goddess, whom I know, do not know, I pray aloud.
Men are hardened, they know nothing.
Men, so far as they exist, what do they know ?
Whether they do ill, whether they do good, they know nothing.
O Lord, thy servant, cast him not down ; thrown into the water of the slime, take him by the hand !
The sins that I have committed, turn into good ; the offence that I have done, may the wind carry hence!
My many misdeeds take from off me like a garment! My God, though my sins be seven times seven, deliver me from my sins !
God, whom I know, do not know, though my sins be seven times seven, deliver me from my sins ; Goddess, whom I know, do not know, though my sins be seven times seven, deliver me from my sins.
IV. R. 54: May his fervent supplication incline Thee above to mercy !
Sigh or pity—how long ?1 may they speak to thee.
Look upon his miserable lot,
it may ease thy heart, grant him mercy !
Grasp his hand, forgive his sins !
Drive away illness and misery from him.
IV. R. 29: I thy servant, sighing call I upon thee,
whoso has sinned, thou acceptest his fervent supplication, when thou lookest upon a man, the man liveth.
Almighty mistress of mankind,
Merciful, whose favour is good, who receives prayer !
His god and his goddess being angry, he calls upon thee. Turn thy neck towards him, grasp his hand !
Beside thee there is no guiding deity !
K. 3459 :2    
Marduk gives relief [....]
he receives the prayers [....]
after that in the anger of his heart [. . . .],
Marduk, to thy servant, Adapu,3 who [....]
take away his sins, O B61 [....]
his mouth sinned [. . . .],
raise him up out of the great flood [....]
1   A/iu/ap, otherwise also adi mati, terminus technicns as in the Old Testament Psalms.
2   Hehn, B.A., v. 322 f., col. 2, Z 9-15-
Epithet = Adapa ?
BABYLONIAN CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN 225
We must inquire, in the first place, what is understood in these prayers by sin ? To the primitive heathen conscience sin is often only a matter of ceremonial commission or omission. The wretched victim has unconsciously omitted something in the religious ceremonies, he has touched a tabu of the god, or has not rightly offered a sacrifice, and he is promptly convicted of a crime.1 Also the idea of amu, that is, correctly, “ rebellion,1-’ kkitn (Hebrew, khef), which is often used of political crime,2 often enough means “ ceremonial omission11; egu seems to mean “neglect,11 correctly, “light act”; the concluding lines of the epic Enuraa elish speak of annu and qillatu against God. It is also to be specially noted that in the laws of Hammurabi arnu denotes the injury connected with the deviation from justice (that always meaning violation of property), but khitUu means the objective injury.
Yet it would be a great error to imagine that the Babylonians did not include moral faults and failings in their idea of sin. The tables of exorcisms of the Shurpu series 3 show this :
Has lie caused division between father and son,
has he caused division between mother and daughter,
has he caused division between stepmother and stepdaughter,
has he caused division between brother and brother,
has he caused division between friend and friend,
has he not let a captive go free,
not loosed the bond?
If it is violence against the chief (?), hate against the elder brother,
if he has despised father and mother, injured the elder sister,
given the younger (sister), denied the elder,
for nay said yea,
for yea said nay,
spoken impurity,
spoken sacrilege,
used false weights,
1   Therefore the priests were most necessary in heathen cults : knowing the secret detail, they could warn against “sins.”
2   Root meaning : to miss (the goal).
3   Published and interpreted by Zimmern, Beitriige ; according to the criticism in question, the texts appear to have their source in the enumeration of the gods in the Babylonian (Marduk) epochs, but they are of much more ancient origin. All gods, those also of foreign lands like the Cassite and those of Elam, which for a time belonged to Babylon, but chiefly Shamash and Marduk, are called upon.
VOL. I.   15
226
THE FALL
passed false money,
disinherited a legitimate son, installed an illegitimate,
drawn a false boundary,
boundary, border, and district displaced ?
Has he trespassed in his neighbour’s house, approached his neighbour’s wife, shed his neighbour’s blood, stolen his neighbour’s garment ?
Has he not let a man go out of his power (?) driven a brave man out of the family, caused dissension in a united kindred, raised himself up against a superior ?
Has he been upright in speech, false in heart ?
With his mouth full of yea, his heart full of nay ?
Is it upon injustice that he has thought, to drive away the righteous, to destroy, to sin, to rob, to allow robbery, to occupy himself with evil ?
Is his mouth filthy, his lips unruly ?
Has he taught impurity, shown unseemliness ?
Has he occupied himself with sorcery and witchcraft?
Has he promised with heart and mouth, but not kept it, by a (retained) gift despised the name of his God, consecrated something, but held it back, presented something (the sacrifice) .... but eaten it ?
That through which he is always banned, shall be redeemed.
Has he eaten that which for his city would be an abomination, caused a rumour to spread about his city, made the fame of his city evil, has lie gone towards an outlaw,
has he had fellowship with an outlaw (slept in his bed, sat upon his stool, drunk from his cup) ?
On the third Shurpu table it is assumed that the ban may rest upon one
because he has helped someone to a verdict by bribery, torn up plants from the field, cut reed in the thicket,
has been asked for a trough for one day and has refused it, has been asked for a water vessel for one day and has refused it,
stopped his neighbour’s canal,
instead of complying with his opponent, has remained hostile to him,
fouled a river, or spit in a river.
BABYLONIAN CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN 227
All the faults violating the second, third, and tenth commandments are named in this text, some even in the order of the Decalogue (see Exod. xx).1 To these are added social crimes which give a most interesting insight into the life of a Babylonian citizen. But the plainer the relationship between Babylonian and Biblical thought, so much the clearer becomes the far-reaching difference.
The Biblical penitential psalms, for instance, are founded upon a clear understanding of the relationship of man towards God, and are aware of the moral responsibility. It has been rightly observed that the liturgical formula “ unknown god,” “unknown goddess” sounds like a parody upon words like Ps. li. 6: “ against thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.” Where in the Babylonian psalms are thoughts to be found like Ps. xxxii. 5: “I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin”; or Ps. li. 10: “Create in me a clean heart, 0 God ” ?2
It is to be expected that the idea of a “ fall ” would not be far from the mind of the Babylonians when they emphasised sin in this way. In fact, the notion of the Deluge as a punishment falling upon the sins of mankind and the myths of punitive visitations before the Flood, the culminating point being the corruption of the river, show they were speaking of primeval sin.
Finally, we may add one more text3 which has become widely known through the fine interpretation of H. Zimmern and has awakened much interest because it gives us better than any other a deep insight into the psychology of a Babylonian penitent and the conception of the universe as it was in the non-Biblical Nearer East:
1   Compare with the second and third commandments, naturally mutatis mutandis, the passages IV. R. 60* (p. 228), which treat of the frivolous and the reverential mention of the name of God, and of the festival, with prayer and singing, of the day dedicated to the honour of God.
2   Comp. F. Jeremiasin Chantepie de la Saussaye Religionsgtsch,, 3rd ed., 322 f. ; and Sellin, Erirag der Ausgrabungen, p. 17.
3   Zimmern, latest A.O., vii. 3, pp. 28 ff. Text, IV. R. 60*. There exists a philological commentary on this ancient text in the cuneiform V. R. 47 ; comp, also Delitzsch, B.B., iii. 54.
228
THE FALL
“Shouting for joy to heaven, sorrowful unto death ”
I attained to (long) life, it reached out beyond the goal (of life).
Wheresoever I turn, there it goes not well, yea, not well; my distress gets the upper hand, my well being see I not.
If I call to my god, he turns not his face to me,
if I pray to my goddess, she lifteth not her head.   5
The soothsayer told not by soothsaying the future, by a libation the seer established not my right.
If I went to the exorcist of the dead, he let me know nothing, the sorcerer redeemed not my ban by magic charm.
What perverse things in the world •   10
Looked I behind me, misery oppressed me.
As though no libation had I brought to my god,
or at meal time my goddess had not been called upon,
my face not downcast, my footfall had not become visible ;
(like one) in whose mouth stayed prayer and supplication, 15
(with whom) the day of god ceased, the festival fell out;
who was careless, who attended not to (the god’s) decrees (?),
fear and reverence (for God) taught not his people ;
who called not upon his god, ate of his food,
forsook his goddess, a writing (?) brought her not;   20
he then, who was honoured, his lord forgot,
the name of his mighty god pronounced disparagingly —
thus did I appear.
I myself, however, thought only of prayer and supplication, prayer was my rule, sacrifice my habit.
The day of the gods’ worship was the joy of my heart,   25
the day of the following of the goddess was to me profit and
riches.
To do homage to the king, that was my joy, also to play to him, that was pleasant unto me.
I taught my land to respect the name of God,
to honour the name of the goddess, I instructed my people. 30
The adoration of the king I made like unto giants (?), also in reverence for the palace I instructed the people.
If I but knew, that before God such is well-pleasing !
But what seems good to oneself, that is bad with God ;
what is despicable to anyone’s mind that is good to his god. 35
Who has understood the counsel of the gods in heaven,
the plan of a god, full of darkness (?), who has fathomed it !
How could be understood the way of a god by dim-sighted
men !
He who still lived in the evening, in the morning was dead, suddenly he became troubled, quickly he was slain ;   40
in the moment he still sings and plays, in the night he wails like a mourner.
BABYLONIAN CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN 229
Day and night their1 mind changes.
If they hunger, they appear like a corpse,
if they be full, then would they be equal with their god. 45 If things go well with them, then they talk of climbing up to
the heaven,
if they be full of pain, then they talk of going down to hell. [Here a larger passage is missing.*1)
A prison to me is the house become.
In the fetters of my flesh my arms are laid, in my own bands are my feet thrown.
[A line missing.)
With a scourge has he slain me, full of .... ,
with his staff hath he pierced me through, the blow was
heavy. 20
The whole day the oppressor oppressed me,
in the middle of the night he let me not breathe for a minute.
By rending asunder (?) are my joints broken,
my members   are loosened,   are   
In my filth I wallowed (?) like an ox,
was watered   like   a   sheep   with my dirt.   15
My fever symptoms remained obscure to the sorcerer (?)
My omen also left the soothsayer dark
the exorciser has not treated my sickness well;
an end also to my prolonged sickness the soothsayer did not
give-   10
My god gave me no help, took me not by the hand, my goddess took no pity on me, went not by my side.
Opened (already) was the coffin, they busied themselves with
my burying (?)
Without being already dead, the lamentation over me was
conducted;
my whole land called :   “ How evilly is he executed ! ”   5
When my foe heard such, his countenance brightened ;
they informed my foe (feminine) of it, her (?) mind was joyful.
I know (however) a time for my whole family,
where in the midst of the Manes their divinity shall be
honoured. 3
In several respects the Avestic religion offers still more valuable material about sin and the Fall. We have noted 1 That is to say, of men.
" Some few lines of the gaps may be supplied from the commentary on this text, as also from a duplicate in Constantinople. These contain a description of the woeful state of the speaker, introduced by the words : “ An evil spirit of the dead has come forth from his dungeon ” (Zimmern).
3   The translation of the two last lines is very uncertain.
230
THE FALL
(pp. 162 ff.) the Avestic teaching according to which the two worlds, of Ahriman and of Ahuramazda, are at strife. The theology of Zarathustra makes the soul of man the battleground. Ahriman is the cause of sin. Yima, representative of the Golden Age (p. 163), “the good shepherd, who rules over the seven points of direction,” took pleasure in falsehood and untrue words, and his splendour departed from him in the form of a bird.1 The consummation of deliverance in the renewal of
 
FIG. 71.—Mexican pictograph ; the first FIG. 72.—The Mexican first woman (Cihuacohuate) with serpent   human pair. Cod. Vatic,
and twin sons.   A (No. 373S), fol. 12
verso. -
the world is to be the destruction of sin, together with Ahriman. The binding of the dark monsters of chaos, which appear as dragon or snake, and of the deceiver, is clearly indicated in the religion of Zarathustra. It also lies at the root of the Biblical conception, though it may not be plainly brought forward in our texts. The serpent in Paradise, whose destruction is foretold in Gen. iii. 15, is, in point of fact, identical with the monsters of chaos, Leviathan and Rahab, conquered by Yahveh. In the Book of Revelation the end of time is described, corresponding to the primeval age. There the binding is clearly
1   Yast, xix. 31 ff. Orelli, Religionsgesch., 549.
2   Seler, Cod. Tat. No. 3773, i. p. 133.
THE HAPPY STATE OF PRIMITIVE MAN 231
stated of the “ dragon,’1 “ the old serpent, the deceiver of the whole world,” Rev. xii. 9, xx. 8. It can scarcely be doubted that the Babylonian teaching also held the monsters of chaos to be the causes of destruction, though there may be no direct proof of it. In a psalm of thanksgiving, of which only some fragments remain,1 it is said:
At the divine stream, where the judgment of mankind takes place, I Avas Avashed from evil, the chains Avere taken from me,
the Avrath of the lion,2 3 Avho Avould fain have s\\ralloAved me, Avas bridled by Marduk.
In Mexican mythology the first Avoman is called “ the woman with the serpent,” or “the Avoman of our flesh,” and she has twin sons. Fig. 713 represents her conversing Avith the serpent, whilst the tAvins appear at strife. She is Avorshipped in Mexico as wife of the god of the celestial Paradise.
In the same way the Indians have a divine first mother of the race of man, who dwells in Paradise (the Indian Meru). Also in the beginning the evil demon Mahishasura fought Avith the serpent, trod upon and cut off his head ; a victory to be repeated at the end of the Avorld, when Brahma will give back to Indra the rulership over all.4
The Chinese have a myth according to Avhich Fo-hi, the first man, discovered the wisdom of Yang and Yin, masculine and feminine principle (heaven and earth); seep. 166. A dragon rose from the deep and taught him.5 “ The woman,” it is said in an explanatory gloss, “is the first source and the root of all evil.”
The Happy State of Primitive Man
The stories of the Fall presuppose a golden age, when men lived in peace and near to God. This thought also is universal.
1   Zimmern, A.O., vii. 3, 30 f. ; text V. R. 48. It speaks only of bodily ills, but it is a penitential psalm.
2   Does not this recall 1 Pet. v. 8 ?
3   Comp. Humbold, Pittoreske Ansichten der Cordilleren, ii. 41 and 42, (table xiii.), and Lueken, loc. ci/., p. 132.
4   Lueken, loc. cit., 90 f.
5   Ibid., p. 9S.
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THE FALL
It has been said 1 that this myth of peace breathes the longing of an old and war-worn people after rest and peace; the most ancient Israel, therefore, could not have originated it. Neither did Israel originate the teaching of a golden age. But the fundamental conception (not myth) has nothing to do with political circumstances. The happy primeval condition agrees with the teaching of the ages of the world ; see pp. 69 ft*. The golden age is followed by the silver,2 then the copper, then the iron. The ages become worse. The end of time will bring back the conditions of primeval time; compare, for example, Acts xiv. 11. Babylonian and Assyrian texts often speak of
 
FIG. 73.—Cylinder in the Bibliotheque Nationale.
a blessed time in which is mirrored the thoughts of a past happy age.3
The epic of Gilgamesh tells about a friend of the hero, reminiscent of Pan and Priapus, Eabani, whose whole body was covered with hair. He is the creation of Aruru when she “broke off clay” and “made an image of Anu.”4 He is a being of a gigantic strength. “ With the gazelles he eats green plants,5 with the cattle he satisfies himself (?) with drink,
1   Gunkel, Genesis, 109.
2   To be correct the order must have been: silver (lunar age), gold (solar age, that is to say, the age of Saturn, for sun = Saturn-Nergal, p. 26). The reversal look place under the dominion of the teaching of Marduk (solar phenomenon), or followed from Egyptian influence.
3   K.A. T., 3rd ed., 380 f. ; B.N. T., 31 f., 57.
4   P. 185. For an interpretation of the text, see Izdubar-Nimrod, 1891, pp. 15, 46 ; and Jensen, A~,B., vi. 120 ff.
5   The dwelling together in peace of man and beast described in Gen. i. is to return again in the final age ; see Isa. xi. 6-S, and comp. Ixv. 25, Job v. 23.
RESULTS OF THE FALL
with the fish (properly crozecl) he is happy in the water.1 He spoils the hunting of the ‘ hunter.’ Out of love to the animals he destroys snares and nets (?), so that the wild beasts escape. Then by the craft of the hunter, who feared him, a woman is brought to him, who seduces him, and keeps him from his companions, the beasts, for six days and seven nights. When he came back, all beasts of the field fled from him. Then Eabani followed the woman, and let himself be led into the city of Erech. In the following passages of the epic the woman appears as the cause of his troubles and sorrows. A later passage records that Eabani cursed her. The First Man is not in question here, but a certain relationship of idea in this description to the story of the happy primeval state of Adam must be granted.2
Results of the Fall
Gen. iii. 14 : The serpent is to crazvl upon his belly, and to eat dust all the days of his life. The curse presupposes that the serpent did not originally crawl upon the earth.3 In Ancient- Oriental representations we find upright standing serpent monsters. Compare the four-legged mushrushshu (sirushshu), fig. 58, and the figure with upright human body and serpent lower half, fig. 73;i further, the stone sphinxes with serpent bodies at Zenjirli. There is also, however, hidden in the words “eat dust” a pictorial figure of speech, meaning, in general, “ to be put to shame,” and, in particular, “ to go down
1   Vegetarianism is the characteristic of the Golden Age, according to Plato, Plutarch, Ovid, and also amongst the classical peoples; see Diliman, Genesis, 36.
2   Jastrow, American Journal of Semitic Languages, 1899, 193 ff. ; P. Keil, Zur Babel-nnd Bibelfrage, pp. 59 f. Stade, in “Der Mythus vom Paradies und die Zeit seiner Einwanderung in Israel,” Z.A. IV., 1903, 174 f., says about the naive account: Gen. ii. 19 ff. bears the same relationship to this story of Eabani as a fresh mountain stream does to a stagnant village puddle ! His view, that the Eabani myth is perhaps a distortion by oral tradition of an original fable of primeval man and his condition, leads to a theory of borrowed literature such as we hold to be erroneous.
3   Luther says: the serpent must have stood upright like a fowl.
4   According to Curtiss. The authenticity of the drawing appears to be doubtful, but some variants are in existence, one in Nielsen, Mondreligion, 107. Erichtonius (Son of the Earth, II., ii. 547) was man above and serpent below. Ovid, Met., ii. 552.
234
THE FALL
to hell.” The literal eating of dust cannot be meant.1 In Tel Amama L, xlii. 35, it is *aid, “ may our enemies see it and akalu ipru” ; that is, “eat dust.” CloNely connected with this is “ kiss the earth ” or “ lick the dust,” which is always said of conquered enemies. But an idea lies at the root of the figure of speech which agrees with the natural occurrence. The figure of speech says, “ thou shalt be despised, shalt become a creeping thing.” Micah vii. 17 knows the turn of phrase, also Isa. lxv. 25. The commentators have put it in the sense of Gen. iii. when they add in Micah, “like the serpent which crawls upon the ground,” and in Isa. lxv. 25, “ dust shall be the serpent’s meat.”2
Gen. iii. 15: “ I will put enmity bctzcecn thee and the zcuman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt snap at his heel.” The play of words in qTffl cannot be proved by the lexicon.3 But, by the sense of the occurrence, it must be thus translated. The serpent-slayer seeks to destroy the serpent by treading on his head ; it wounds him by a sting in the heel. As result of the combat, a destruction- of the serpent is certainly in view.
In the original conception the serpent is, on the one hand, dark primeval chaos, from out of which the creator built the world ; on the other hand, it represents the active inimical Power, to be destroyed by the deliverer. We find both ideas clearly
1   Or does the serpent eat dust? It does not live upon vegetable food. In that case certainly it might speak of eating dust (see article controverting Gunkel in Theol. Lit. Bl., 1905, Sp. 345).
2   Winckler, Babyl. Kultur, 48; Krit. Schr., ii. 31, iii. 3. “To eat dust” is again a refinement upon the expression “ eat dung.” “ Dung is the element of Hades ” (compare at p. 7 the signification of the beetle in Egypt; for gold as dung of Hades, Mammon = ilu Manman = Nergal, comp. B.N.T., 96). H. Winckler suggests (comp, also F., i. 291) reading Isa. i. 20 as Nin—that is, as in the Arabic, “eat trash, dirt,” instead of hereb, “to be devoured with the sword.” Then the figure of speech “to eat dust” would be attested also in its drastic meaning in the Old Testament.
3   Winckler, F., iii. 391, recalls the cycle resulting from the change of light and dark half; the two combatants are the two halves—one grasps the head of the other, who in turn grasps the heel of the first (symbolised simply by the serpent biting his own tail). An Indian presentment, showing Brahma with the toes of his upraised foot in his mouth, is in Niklas Muller’s Glaube, Wissen und Kunst der Indier. It is possible that the motif of this picture is indicated and is explained by the fact that the same word -'T.? is used for both actions.
RESULTS OF THE FALL
235
defined in Babylonian presentations; but we miss any connection of the dragon-serpent (comp. Rev. xii. 7-9) with sin. On non-Biblical ground this connection is clear in the Avestic teaching; see p. 230. The Biblical presentment knows both sides of the teaching, and fills it with deep religious signification in answering the question : Whence comes sin ? and in the other question : How will the deliverance be accomplished?
We have the story here in a modified form. The Church’s interpretation (probably first by Irenaeus) placed Gen. iii. 15 in connection with the dragon combat in Revelation, and called one passage the “ protevangelium.”1 The victor treads upon the dragon. The wounded heel is original.2 It is quite possible that it may hide the religious mystery later expressed in the motif of the sufferings of the Deliverer. Like Tiamat and Marduk, Set and Typhon, so serpent and seed of the woman (comp. Adapa as “ seed of mankind”; see pp. 107, 182) are opposed. Paradise is closed. The dragon-slayer is to reopen Paradise, and thereby the way to the tree of life. The whole picture is clearly recognisable in the figurative language of the Apocalypse. In the primeval stories the features are blurred.
Gen. iii. 17: “ Cursed is the ground for thy sake; by thy labour (toil) slialt thou make it useful.'''3 Instead of ba^abureka,k4 Lathy sake,” quite possibly it should read ba-‘dbod-ka, Septuagint eV rof? epyois GOV. “ By toil,” beissabon, is possibly a comment. As during the Golden Age all the blessings of nature came of themselves, so now the earth must be laboriously worked.4 Akalu^ “ to make useful,” “ to have the usufruct,” as for example in
1   The literary age of the passage is here immaterial ; the idea at the root of it is primeval. It almost seems as though the scribe no longer understood his ancient “copy.”
a But also here there are analogies. Hercules was bitten in the foot by a large crab who helped the hydra (summer solstice). Though he crushed the nine heads of the hydra with his club, yet he could not succeed, for as fast as he destroyed one head, two grew in its place ; comp. Stricken, Astralmythen, 24.
3   R.V. “in toil shalt thou eat of it.”
4   In Gen. v. 29 the words spoken by Lamech confirm this assumption. Chap. viii. 21, “I will not again curse the ground any more [for man’s sake]” ; this last is perhaps a commentary, on the ground of the reading balabur, chap. iii. 17, Upon this see Winckler, F., iii. 389 ff.
236
THE FALL
H.C., 13a, 1 : cicli halted Ileal, “during their lifetime they shall have the usufruct,’1 loo, 13. 57. 73.
Gen. iii. 24: “ And he placed before the garden of Eden the cherubim, and the fame of the szcord zchich turned every zcay to guard the zcay to the tree of life."11
We may recall the figures on the intrados of gates and on the terraces of palaces and temples, and the Egyptian sphinxes guarding gateways. Particularly helpful are the genii with men’s heads and eagles’ heads which we find to the right and left of the tree of life.2 Here, they stand before Paradise, the entrance to the heavenly world. In Ezek. i. f. the cherubim are the bearers of the chariot of the throne, and in Rev. iv. 6 they are the throne-bearers.
We cannot quote the authority of any inscription for a word corresponding to the Babylonian word kiriibu; compare, however, Hommel, G.G.G., p. 276, note 1, and p. 324- (gud-club = kan1bu?). Lenormant thought he read the word on an amulet in the collection of De Clercq (see K.A.T., 2nd ed., 39)- A correspondence with De Clercq some years ago (see Roscher, Lex., article on Nergal) proved that in this case the wish was father to the thought with the ingenious Lenormant. Nevertheless the Babylonian kiriibu continues to flourish.
“ The faming szvord zchich turned every zcai/” This is the sword wielded later by the dragon-slayer, and which was “ two- edged,”3 that is to say, both edges sharp, grasped with both hands and swung to right and left (this possibly is the mitha- pelcet, so far as it belongs to the sword motif).4
There seems to have been still another presentment, which has vanished out of the present text. The flaming sword here has no bearer; imagination has to come to the help, which places it in the hand of a cherub, somewhat as, in Numb. xxii. 23 ff., the angel with the drawn sword encountered Balaam. At the
1   Comp. R. V., ad loc.
2   Comp. figs. 65-67 above.
3   Comp. Rev. i. 16 (here it is figure of speech for tongue of the Judge of the earth which pronounces the doom of destruction) with Rev. ii. 12, where it is borne by the combatant against Satan (ii. 16) enthroned in Pergamos.
4   “ Sword, which turns every way ” ; “ hew here, hew there,” in the 7'housand and One Nights ; the “hewing sword” of Siegfried, of Theseus, and so on. See upon this and the following (wavering flame), Winckler, F., iii. 392 f.
RESULTS OF THE FALL
2S7
entrance into Paradise, that is to say, the celestial world, it is, however, to be expected, according to the Oriental cosmos, that there would be a second hindrance—fire.1 In the Koran, Sura lxxii. 8, it is said : “We reached heaven and found it full of guards and fire.” One may further recall the “flames'” through which the rescuer Siegfried must pass. The word mn, which the traditional text renders as a sword, might in point of fact equally well mean scorching heat.2 Thus, as well as the cherubim “ the flame of the scorching fire” bars the way to the tree of life.
That later they understood “the flame of the gleaming sword” to mean “lightning” is shown by the additions to Daniel (Susanna, Kautzseh, Apokr., p. 188 f.), where the angel of the Lord “with the sword” is spoken of (History of Susanna, 59), and where he launches fire into the midst of those thrown into hell (62) for punishment (by which undoubtedly lightning is meant).
Thureau-Dangin, in the Revue d'histoire et cle Hit. rel., i. 146 ff., draws attention to a passage of the inscription of Tiglathpileser I. (col. vi. 15; see K.B., i. 37): after the destruction of the strong city Khanusa, Tiglathpileser erected upon the ruins a “bronze lightning,” and wrote thereupon a glorification of his victory, and a warning against the rebuilding of the city. “ I erected a house of bricks upon it, and placed that copper lightning in it.”
1   P. 32. May one think of the burning thorn-bush which in Exod. iii. 2 showed the presence of God ?
2   Horeb (sun) and Sinai (moon) ; see Winckler, R, iii. 308, and comp. p. 24, n. 4, above.
CHAPTER VII
THE PATRIARCHS
GEX. iv. 17 ff.: The children of Cain,
Gen. iv. 25 f., v. 1 ffi: The children of Seth.
It has latterly been commonly agreed that there are two variants of one tradition on the tables of ancestors.1 H. Zimmern2 conjectures that the prototype of both variants of ten ancestors and seven “ sages,” 3 as the “ imaginary ancestors ” appear in the first place in Gen. iv., is to be found in the Babylonian ten primeval kings and seven interpreters.
The following Babylonian material may be considered:—
1. The Babylonians tell of races ‘‘before the Deluge.” They talk of “ times before the Deluge,” and a list of names of Ancient-Babylonian kings, V. R. 44. 20«, bears the superscription, “These are the kings after the Deluge.” In the epic of Gilgamesh, kings “ who ruled the land from of old ” are spoken of, and the city “ which was of old ” when the Deluge overwhelmed it. The text of the “Map of the World,” fig. 9 (p. 17), names the hero of the Deluge, Ut-napishtim, as a king who reigned before the Flood.1 In K 4023 some instructions in magic are referred back to “ decisions of the ancient sages before the Flood” {sha ft abkalle labiruti sha lam abubi).5 The traditions on the inscriptions certainly affirm this age. Assur-
1   First Buttmann, Mythologns, 1828, i. 170 f. Comp. Budde, Die bibl. Utgesckichte, 90 ff.
2   K.A.T., 3rd ed., 541.
3   See Lueken, Die Traditionen des Menschengeschiechts, 148 ff., on the numbers ten and seven for the Patriarchs and primeval kings amongst the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Persians, Indians, and Chinese. “ Popular idea ” certainly does not suffice for explanation here.
4   See Izdubar-Nimrod, 1891, p. 37 ; comp. p. 71, above.
5   Comp. K.A. T., 3rd ed., 537.
238
LIST OF THE PATRIARCHS
239
banipal says1 he has read “stones from the age before the Flood.11 Berossus records, as has been mentioned p. 51, traditions about tablets which the Babylonian Noah hid in Sippar before the Flood, and the contents of which were spread abroad amongst men after the Deluge by his children.
Lists of the primeval kings and fuller detail about the ancient sages have not come to light amongst the cuneiform sources as yet open to us. Yet the list of the ten primeval kings in Berossus may be taken as reliable after the confirmation we have had of his other records.2 Some confirmatory traces have been found. In a catalogue of myths and epics,3 the sages are named who are said to have related the old legends, and some of them may be taken to be of the time before the Flood. Their names in part agree with the names given by Berossus.
Berossus.
Aloros Alaparos = Adaparos 5 A melon Annnenon
Megalaros,
Megalanos Daonos, Daos Euedorachos,
Euedoreschos
1   Lehmann, Sha/nashshumnkin, ii., table xxxv., L. iS.
2   See upon this, article “ Oannes-Ea ” in Roscher’s Lex ikon der Mythologie, iii. 577 ff., and now in addition, especially Zimmern, A'.A.T,, 3rd ed., 530 ff.
8 Published by Haupt, Nimrod-Epos, 90-92.
4   Comp. pp. 106 and 182, above. Adapa is Demiurgos, Logos. Late Judaic tradition makes Seth the Messiah. Hommel, P.S.B.A., 1893, 243 ff., has made Arftru and Adapa equivalent.
5   See article “ Oannes Ea” in Roscher’s Lexikon der Mythologie, iii., pr. 587, n.
6   Comp, the Aramaic kainayd, “smith.” The identification of Qain-Qenan and Ammenon ummanu comes from Hommel.
7   See p. 51, above.
8   Compare the tradition of the pseudo-epigraph, according to which Enoch, like Enmeduranki, was initiated into all the secrets of heaven. According to Sohar

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Re: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST (sumer) I
« Reply #14 on: October 04, 2016, 02:53:19 PM »
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LISTS OF THE PATRIARCHS
Cuneiform Parallels, j Biblical Parallels. ^ Planets.
! = Aruru   '   ^
= Adapa4   j   Seth i
I
= amelu (man) i Enos (man)
= unnnanu,   1   Cain = Kenan   j
I “ master-crafts- (smith)6 man"   !
?   1   Mahalalel   ;
?   1   ? (Jared)
, = Enmeduranki 7 8 1 Enoch   Shamashs
240
THE PATRIARCHS
Berossus.
Cuneiform Parallels.
Biblical Parallels
Planets.
Amempsinos ,
Otiartes Ardatos, father of Xisuthros, > see p. 245.   |
Xisuthros, Sisu- thros,Sisithrosj
= Amel-Sin, man of the gocl Sin 1 = Ubara-Tutu 2
= Atrahasis3 (Ha- sis-atra)
Methusalah ? Lamech
Noah
Sin
Marduk
Nergal ?
(In the sense of Under- world=realm of Ea ?)
“ Enoch walked with God" Gen. v. 22 and 24 ; comp. chap, xvii. 1 in regard to Abraham : walk before the face of God. Union with God is meant, as in the case of Enmeduranki, p. 51, who received the heavenly secrets. “ Because he walked -with Elohim, he disappeared: God took him ”; Gen. v. 24. The translation of the Babylonian Noah with his wife and steersman may be compared with that of Enoch. Berossus explicitly says they were “ taken away ” {yeveoBai a<pav>j). The Babvlonian storv says they came into the “ company (puhru) of the gods ^ and attained to “ life ” : “ Then they took
Chadasch, fol. 35, col. 3 (quoted according to Nork, Rabb. Quellen, 272 ; “ Zur charakteristik der Sohar-Literatur,” see B.N.T., 65), he wrote his observations in a book ; according to the legend this was the cabbalistic book of Jezirah. The three hundred and sixty-five years of the life of Enoch is clearly the solar number. The Jewish Feast of Hanfika (Enoch) is the festival of the winter solstice (24th December), later it was connected with an event of history (the dedication of the Temple). Jubilaen, iv. 21 : “ Enoch was with the angels of god for six jubilees, and they showed him all that is in heaven and upon earth, the dominion of the sun, and he wrote it all down.” That is to say, they introduced him into all the secrets of the Ancient-Oriental conception of the universe, as is done in the Mysteries of Mithra. In the Liturgy of Mithra published by Dieterich the mystic shall fly over the heaven like an eagle (in Deut. xxxii. 11) and gaze upon all things. He shall himself be like a wandering star and shall behold the way of God.
*A “sage of Ur” was so called whose “secrets” (uitsirtu—the same expression used by the Babylonian Noah before the story of the Deluge) are communicated in a still unpublished text, K 80S0, K.A. 71, 3rd ed., 537.
2   Father of the Babylonian Noah. Tutu is Marduk as Lord of Exorcisms. Otiartes should be corrected to Opartes.
3   “The chief in prudence.” Pseudonym for the Babylonian Noah (Ut- napishtim). Xisuthros is the reversal. He prays to the gods in an epic (see p. 262) for the deliverance of mankind from the severe tribulation which their iniquity has caused.
LIST OF THE PATRIARCHS
241
me, and far away at the mouth of the rivers they made me to dwell.” 1 Here the same expression is used (lequ) as in the case of Enoch and of Elijah (2 Kings ii. 3 ff.), to which Zimmern draws attention, and also in Isa. liii. 8, in the case of the suffering redeemer.
Gen. v. 29 (Noah as saviour), see p. 271, and comp. p. 132.
Gen. vi. 3 : “ His days shall he an hundred and twenty years.1’' This was a judgment of punishment; comp. 1 Sam. ii. 31 f. Life possibly lasted longer in early ages. The dynasty of Hammurabi in Babylon, for example, records gigantic length of reigns with corresponding length of life.
Gen. vi. 4: From the intercourse of the bene ha-elohim with mankind arose “ giants, which were of renown in days of old.” This indicates the heroic age, which in the myth lies between the race of gods and of men (for example, Marduk as the hero Adapa, see p. 106), like the heroes mentioned in the epic of Gilgamesh, who dwell in the Underworld, and like the Titans of the Greeks, who were cast down to Tartarus by Zeus. Jos., Ant., i. 3, 1, compares the giants with these Titans.2 Bar. iii. 26 ff. : “ There (in the house of God, that is, in the world) the giants were born, that were famous of old, great of stature.”
In traditions outside the Bible the “giants” are connected with the story of the building of the Tower ; see Chap. XII.
1   We may add yet two classical analogies to the translation to the divine state. Ganymede, third son of Troas, was on account of his beauty carried away in storm and thunder to serve Jupiter as cupbearer. Comp, further also II., xx. 233.
2   The heroic age is here connected with the later developed fall of the angels. The angels fall from heaven to the material world. The Jewish Targum in the passage quoted gives their names. The Rabbinical fable makes Eve have intercourse with Sammael.
VOL, I.
16
CHAPTER VIII
BIBLICAL GENERATIONS
THE evolution of the world is conceived of as the cycles of a universe year, corresponding to the lunar or solar year, according to the emphasis laid upon moon or sun in the particular astrological system. That gives for the generations a division either into four seasons, or into twelve according to the months,1 or into seventy-two (relatively seventy, according to the lunar system) weeks of five days. The theory would also allow a possible division into fifty-two (fifty according to the lunar system) weeks of seven days. The calculation as to when an aeon begins is a matter of speculation. We spoke of the ages at pp. 69 ff. The Biblical scribes would, for the most part, have nothing to do with the system. In its place appears the rule of God. But they knew the theory, and, amongst those chroniclers who may be credited with “scientific knowledge,” we find speculative attempts to make the seons dependent upon the whole evolution of the world (a), or to place them in connection with some special historical or apocalyptical period of the course of the world (b, c).
(«) The sacerdotal writings with their seven (?) Toledoth :2
1   Thus the twelve ages of the Etruscans (p. 16S) bear upon the decimal system, like the 12,000 years of the world’s duration in Zoroaster’s teaching. Compare for example 4 Esr. xiv. n; Ape. Ba. liii. Compare also the 12,000 years of the Indians (the Deluge occurs when Brahma sleeps), see F. Schlegel, Weisheit der Inder, 230 ; 12,000 years as the age of the gods in the Book of Laws of Manu (i. 72). Also the cycle of Berossus (36,000 years) may well be taken as twelve times three thousand according to the twelve signs of the zodiac. The decimal system is secondary. The “false Orpheus,” Orph., Argon., 1100, gives twelve myriads of years as the duration of the universe year.
2   SeeGunkel, Genesis, 241 ff., and Zimmern, K.A. T., 3ided., 542. Gunkelhad already seen that the Toledoth of Adam, Noah, Terah, and Moses correspond to the ages. But it is in nowise dealing here with the quaternary number. See also p. 243, n. 1.
212
BIBLICAL GENERATIONS
243
1.   The generation “of the creation of heaven and the earth”
with the seven “ days ” of Creation ;1 Gen. ii. 4.
2.   The generations of Adam; Gen. v. 1. The Patriarchs
with the gigantic length of life.2
3.   The generations of Noah after the Deluge; Gen. vi. 9.
4.   The generations of Terah (Abraham) ; Gen. xi. 27.
5.   The generations of Moses.
6.   The generations of David ; see Ruth iv. IS.
7.   The generations glorified by the priestly editor as “ the
new age ”—Ezra.
(b)   The four “ historic ” ages in Dan. vii.
(c)   Specially connected with periods of the last days: seventy weeks (shabidim)3 in Dan. ix. 24 f.; the twelve last “ shepherds,” Enoch xc. 17 (Kautzsch, Pseudepigrctm, 296); the twelve periods of the oppression, Apoc. Baruch xxvii. (i&., p. 421); the four stages of the last days, Rev. vi. 1 ff., viii. 6 ff., belong to this.4
Later Jewish literature had a special preference for the old teaching. In the Book of the Jubilees, lately placed in the time of the Maccabees, which is closely related to the Priestly Code, they reckon by weeks of years and by universe years, i. 29 speaks of tables (!) upon which the universe years down to the renewal of the world are inscribed. In the Book of Enoch 5 there appear to be seven periods from Adam onwards. How far these speculations penetrated into late Christian ages is shown by the Saclisenspiegel0 where the controversial point as
1   That here Toledoth, Gen. ii. 4. signifies nothing different to the other passages, Hommel (differing from Kautzsch) has rightly made prominent in his G.G.G.. p. 1S2, n. 3.
2   If the numbers are a cloak for “universe months” (see Zimmern, A'.A.T., 3rd ed., 541) it is certainly not to be understood in the sense of 10/12 of the whole cycle (see Zimmern, loc. cit., 541, 556). Each aeon again mirrors in itself the cycle of the universe.
“ Compare the seventy years of Jer. xxv. IJ, and for the conversion of the years into days, see Winckler, A'A. 71, 3rd ed., 334 ; see also n. 4. below.
4   The ten weeks of the last days in Enoch xciii., like the ten “ days ’’ of Rev. ii. 10, belong to the same motif as yom kippor, as the tenth day (day of deliverance), according to the Jewish autumn new year, signifying the Judgment Day ; comp. B.N.T., 70 f.
5   93 ff. (Kautzsch, Pseudepigrctm, 289 ff.).
0   Edited by Homeyer, 3rd ed., 1S61.
244
BIBLICAL GENERATIONS
to whether there are six or seven shields (classes of knights of equal rank) is to be settled in this way : it is the same as the seven ages of the world. It is not known for certain whether there are seven or six.   But the author himself inclines to
seven shields and ages, and refers to “ Origins,”1 where six ages are counted to the time when God becomes incarnate; the seventh is the one in which the knight Eike von Repgau wrote the Sachsempiegelr
At the beginning of each age appears a “ teacher.” Thus with the fathers of Berossus there appears to be a revelation at the turning-point of each of the four seasons.3 The divine revelation in the sacerdotal stories of Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses corresponds to this speculation ;i see p. 50.
Later Jewish speculations name as teachers (1) Seth, under whom they first called upon the name of Yahveh; (2) Noah, who taught the seven commandments ; (3) Moses, the lawgiver; the expected David was counted as the fourth.
With this teaching there was connected a sort of transmigration theory (Gilgul): the soul of Seth passed into Noah and the soul of Noah into Moses. Also the division into Present and Future (njn and N27T) is ultimately connected with the astral conception of the universe. But here an essential difference shows between the Babylonian and the Biblical conception. The Babylonian “scientific” ideas know nothing of a blessed time beyond the destruction of the world. We find an apoka- tastasis and palingenesia only in the theology of Zoroaster, whose theological use of the “ teaching ” forms a parallel to Biblical theology.
1   “Sources,” Isidore of Seville is meant, in his work Etymologiarum sen origin nm libri XX. (v. 38, see Migne, S.L., lxxxiii. 1017 ff.). But it is not quite in accordance with Isidore, who names Adam, Noah, Abraham, David, the emigration into Babylon, and the incarnation as beginnings of the six ages; the Sachsenspiegel names : Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and the incarnation.
2   Oriental presentments of stories have a tendency to emphasise the beginning of a new era. Berossus shows that the Seleucids (Alexander) brought the new era ; see K.A.T., 3rd ed., 317.
3   Zimmern, K.A.T., 3rd ed., 542.
4   Gunkel, Genesis, 241 ff.
CHAPTER IX
EXTRA - BIBLICAL TRADITIONS OF THE DELUGE 1 BABYLONIAN
LONG before the discovery of the cuneiform records it was known that the Biblical account of the Deluge was related to a Babylonian tradition. Abydenus and Alexander Polyhistor had transmitted the story of the great Hood {/j.eya<; /cara/cXucr/xoV) told by the Babylonian priest Berossus.
The Tradition according to Beros.sus'2
Alexander (Polyhistor) relates further, according to the Chaldean writings, the following: After the death of Ardatos his son Xisuthros reigned eighteen saren. Under him a great flood occuiTed. The story of it runs as follows : Kronos3 appeared to him in a dream and said to him that on the loth Daisios4 mankind would be destroyed by a flood. He therefore commanded him to inscribe in writing the beginning, middle, and end of
1   It can be proved that almost in every part of the world there has been a tradition of a great deluge. Andree has collected sixty fables of the Flood in Die Flutsagen ethnographisch betrachtet (iSg i). He comes to the conclusion that forty of them are genuine, whilst twenty are dependent upon the Babylonian fable either as additions or copies. This is nowise correct (comp. p. 259). Literary dependence is not a chief feature here. As with the cosmogony, it is a case of a tradition spreading throughout the world, the original source of which is perhaps the valley of the Euphrates. But the cosmic myth which presents the Flood as a return to primeval chaos, from which a new world, a new ?eon, proceeds, must be distinguished from the tradition of an historical event.
2   Syncellus, liii. 19-56, 3rd ed.; Eusebius, Chron., i. 19 ff. ; Fragm. hist. Grcec., ii. 501 f. Comp. Abydenus, Fragm. hist. Grcec., iv. 281. The record differs in many respects from the cuneiform criticism known to us. The true inscription of Berossus which was cut in Babylon has not yet been found.
3   Probably = Inlil (Bel.)
4   The night of full moon in the month Sivan.
245
246
TRADITIONS OF THE DELUGE
everything, and to bury the record in the city of Sippar.1 Then to build a boat and to get into it with his relations and connections. They should also take in stores, and birds, and four-footed beasts, and set sail when all was ready. If, however, they should ask him whither he journeyed, he should reply : “ To the gods, to pray for the good of man.” Xisuthros obeyed and built a vessel five (variation by Armenius: fifteen) ells long and two ells wide. Then he carried out all that was commanded, and brought in wife and child
"*V-S- ; r.{~ X
r L\«4r’
and all connected with him.
When the flood had come to pass, directly it ceased he let loose one of the birds. This, however, could find no place where it
could alight, and therefore it returned to the ship. After a few days he again let it loose, and it came back Avitli mud upon its feet. When he let it go for the third time, it returned no more to the ship. By this Xisuthros knew that the earth had again appeared. So he took apart some of the planks of the ship and saw that the ship Avas driven upon a mountain. Thereupon he and his wife and daughter and the steersman came out and threAv them-
 

 
FIG. 74.—Ancient-Babylonian seal cylinder. Referring to the Deluge?
 
FIG. 75.—Ancient-Babylonian seal cylinder.
selves in prayer upon the earth, and erected an altar. After he had sacrificed to the gods upon this, he and all Avho had gone out of the ship disappeared. Those AVIIO remained in the ship, finding he did not return, came out also and searched for him, calling his name. He himself did not again become visible to them, but there came a voice from heaven, Avhich called to them to live in the fear of God, for he himself had attained, through fearing God, to dAvell Avith
1   P. 52. In Sippar lies a play of words on sepher (s/iipnt), Book of Revelation (comp, the Biblical Kirjat-sepher) ; see p. 48, and comp. p. 262, n. 1.
THE DELUGE IN CUNEIFORM
247
the gods. The same honour was partly accorded to his wife and daughter and the steersman. He commanded them also that they should return again to Babylon, and that they should take the writings from Sippar and spread them abroad amongst mankind. The place where they were was in Armenia.
When they heard this they sacrificed to the gods, and went on foot (by land) to Babylon (!). Of the vessel, which was left there, something remains still in the Kurdish Mountains in Armenia, and many cut asphalt from it and use it as a preventive against sickness.
So they came to Babylon, took the writings from Sippar, and founded many cities, sanctuaries, and colonies.
The Record of the Deluge in Cuneiform Writing1 2
Ut-napishtim - said to him, to Gilgamesh :
I will unfold to thee, O Gilgamesh, the hidden matter,
10 and a secret of the gods will I tell to thee.
I. Shurippak, the city, which thou knowest,
which lies [upon the banks] of the Euphrates, this city has existed from of old, the gods in it— the heart of the great gods drove them to make a stormy flood.
(There were) their father in the midst Anu, their counsellor the hero Bel, their herald Ninib, their leader En-nu-gi.
“ The Lord of Wisdom,” Ea, .... (?) with them 20 and related their counsel to a kikkishu (reed fence ?):3 “0 kikkishu, kikkishu, O igaru, igaru (wall), kikkishu, hearken, igaru observe ! 4 O man of Shurippak, son of Ubaratutu, demolish (?) the house, build a ship,
1   Included in the Xlth tablet of the epic of Gilgamesh (library of Assurbanipal ; so far traces are to be found in the literature down to the epoch of Hammurabi ; we find a related fragment of the time of Ammizaduga, about 2100). The fragment from Nippur, reproduced p. 269, is possibly still older. The whole has been latest translated by Winckler, K.T., 3rd ed. ; previously by Jensen, K.B., vi. 230 ff., and by A. Jeremias, Izdubar-Nimrod, and Nikel, Genesis und Keilschrifi, f. 176.
2   Certainly to be read so ; an Ancient-Babylon fragment of the epic M. V.A.G., 1902, 1 ff., writes U-ta-na-pi-ish-tim ; the name probably means “he saw life” (Jensen). The two figs. 74 and 75 are only added here as possible material. They have always been put in connection with the Ancient-Babylonian myths of Gilgamesh.
According to line 196, he sends a vision in a dream.
4 According to line 195 the puzzling passage agrees with a dream vision, which is given by Ea to the Babylonian Noah. Berossus says : Kronos appeared to him in sleep, and revealed the coming Deluge to him.
248
TRADITIONS OF THE DELUGE
leave property and goods, look to thy life—
give up possessions, save thy life ;
bring into the ship living creatures of every kind.
The ship which thou shalt build,
.... ells (?) shall be the measure of its size,
30 ... . ells (?) shall be designed (?) its breadth and its length. .... place it (?) upon the ocean.3 I understood it and spake to Ea, to my Lord:
" demolish (?) my Lord; what thou commandedst,
I observed and I will carry it out.
But what (?) shall I say to the city, to the people and to the elders ? ”
Ea opened his mouth, when he spake, and said unto me, his servant:
"Thus shalt thou say to them : f Because Inlil hateth me,
40 I will not dwell in your city,
will not tarry (longer) upon Inlil’s earth,
to the ocean will I descend, with Ea, my Lord, to dwell.
Upon you shall they [the gods] let fall rain.
   ] birds, prey to the fish,
   ] harvest
A point of time hath Ea (Shamash ?) established2] " they who rule the kukku
[one evening shall let rain] over you a . . . . rain.’ ” I 2 3
[So soon as something of the dawn] appeared [About seven lines are mutilated.]
the strong one   brought what was needed for building.
Upon the fifth day I designed its form.
II.   After the design (??) 120 ells high were its walls the edge of its roof reached 140 ells, eo I designed (drew) its .... (the ship) I drew it myself.
I built it in 6 stories (?),   -
divided it into 7 divisions.
Its interior I divided into 9 divisions.
I sprinkled the shikkat (?) with water in its interior.
I made (?) me a rudder and placed the furniture in it.
3   (variant 6) saren of dust I poured out upon the furnace,3 3 saren asphalt poured 1 into it.
Whilst 3 saren in addition brought the bearers of its (the ship’s) sussulu in oil:
1   According to Berossus he was also commanded to bury in Sippar tablets inscribed with the beginning, middle, and end of all things ; see pp. 246, 262.
2   According to Berossus, night of the full moon in Sivan ; see p. 246.
3   Kiru, comp. Hebrew Kir', see C. T., xvii. 4, line 5 (Zimmern).
THE DELUGE IN CUNEIFORM
249
Besides one sar of oil_, which was to he used at the sacrifice (?),x 70 required 2 saren of oil the shipbuilder.
For the [people] I slew beef,
I killed [lambs] daily,
with must (?) .... (?) oil and wine
[I gave drink] to the people like as with river water,
a festival [did I institute] like unto the New Year festival (Anitu).
   in (?) ointment did I take in my hand.
   [befojre sun[set] .... the ship was ready.
   was heavy
   above and below
so   three thirds of it.
[With all that I had], I filled it (the ship),
with all that I had of silver, I filled it,
with all that I had of gold, I filled it,
with all that I had of living creatures, I filled it.
I brought up into the ship my male and female household.2 Cattle of the field, beasts of the field, artisans, all did 1 bring into it.
The appointed time hath Shamash established.
“ When the regents of the kukku in the evening a . . . . rain let rain,
90 then enter into the ship and close thy door (variant the ship).” That appointed time arrived,
the regents of the kukku in the evening let .... a rain rain The dawning of the day I feared,
The day to see I was afraid.
I entered into the ship, and shut my door.
For governing the ship I gave over to Puzur-Bel, the navigator, the building together with its contents. * 1 2 3
So soon as something of the dawn appeared,
there arose from the depths of the heaven black clouds.
Adad thundered within them, aoo Whilst Nebo and "the King” (Marduk) went before
(both) as throne-bearers (?) marched over mountain and valley, Nergal tore loose the targallu,
Ninib3 drew nigh, he (Adad) let a flood of water stream down.
The Anunnaki raised the torches,
by their (the torches’) flame illuminating the land.
Adad’s storm marched over the heaven, changed all light into [darkness].
1   The solemnities described lines 71-76 are meant.
2   In Berossus: wife, daughter, and steersman and other people; see p. 247. Compare the cuneiform text, p. 253.
3   See p. 141. The four planetary gods of the four corners of the earth ; comp. pp. 2S ff.
250
TRADITIONS OF THE DELUGE
III.   He [flooded] the land like . . . ., one day long . . . . ed the storm, no raged stormily, [the waters rose above] the mountain, like a battle storm they broke loose upon mankind . . ., so that brother could not see brother, mankind was not known in heaven.
The gods were fearful of the stormy flood, they retired, mounted up to the heaven of Anu.
The gods cowered like a dog, encamped by the surrounding wall.1
Ishtar wailed like a travailing woman,
the "mistress of the gods,” with the beautiful voice, cried :
" The Past is become earth.
120 Because I ordered evil before (variant, in the assembly of) the gods,
as I ordered evil before (variant, in the assembly of) the gods, the strife was ordered for the destruction of my mankind,
(but now ask) I : ‘ Have I borne my mankind so that (?) they should fill the sea like fishes ? ’
The gods of the Anunnaki wept with her, the gods sat upon the ashru 2 amidst tears, closed were their lips ....
Six days and [six] nights
drew nigh (lasted) the wind, the storm flood and the hurricane swept the land.
130 When the seventh day came, ceased the hurricane, the storm flood,
which had fought like an army (?).3
The sea calmed itself, the storm quieted itself, the storm flood ceased.
I looked upon the sea, whilst I let lamentations resound, and all mankind were again become earth, like uri spread out before me the plains (?).1 2 3 4 I opened the hatchway, the light fell upon my face,
I kneeled down, sat me down and wept, over my face ran the tears.
I looked upon the parts of the earth, as I looked (?) upon the sea.
uo After 12 (double hours?) land arose, upon the Mount Nizir the ship laid itself.
The Mount Nizir held the ship fast, let it not move (away).
1   Comp. p. 271, and see n. 2 in connection with line 126.
2   Ashru, usually translated "were bowed down.” I conjecture it means a cosmic place, like line 116; see pp. 118, 143, 180.
3   "Like a woman in travail”? Jensen, A'.B., vi. 530.
4   Thus Winckler. Very uncertain. Jensen, A'.B., vi. 239, conjectures: "Then when the daylight was come, I prayed.”
THE DELUGE IN CUNEIFORM
251
One day, a second day held the Mount Nizir, etc. the third day, the fourth day the Mount Nizir, etc. the fifth, the sixth the Mount Nizir, etc.
When the seventh day came.
I let out a dove and set her free.
The dove flew away and returned again, since no place to sit was there, she returned.
150 I let out a swallow and set her free.
The swallow flew away, and returned again,
I let a raven out and set him free.
The raven flew away, saw the lessening (?) of the water, flew nearer to it (?), .... croaked (?) and returned not. (Then) let I out (all) to the four winds, offered a sacrifice, made a libation on the summit of the mountain, twice seven sacrificial vessels set I up, beneath them I poured calamus, cedar wood, and myrtle, loo The gods smelled the odour, the gods smelled the fragrance,
the gods assembled themselves like flies above the sacrifice!-.
IV.   As soon as the f mistress of the gods ’ was come there,
they lifted the noble eluti (?) .... which Anu had prepared according to their wishes :
These days (?) — by the ornament of my neck — will I not forget,
I will think upon these days, I will not forget them for ever. The gods may draw nigh to the libation,
Inlil (however) may not go to the libation, because he did not remember, he stirx-ed up the storm flood iro and delivered up my mankind to destruction.”
Now when at last Inlil came hither, saw the ship, Inlil was angry, was angry with the gods, the Igigi:
“ Who has escaped of living creatures ?
No man shall remain alive in the judgment (?).”
Ninib opened his mouth, in that he spake, he said to the hero Bel :
“ Who besides Ea arranges things ?
Ea knoweth every doing.” iSo Ea opened his mouth, in that he spake, he said to the hero Bel:
“Thou wise amongst the gods, hero Bel,
how, hast thou not considered, when thou didst stir up the storm flood ?
Upon the sinner lay his sins,
upon the blasphemer lay his blasphemy,
but .... shall not be exterminated ....
Why hast thou stirred up a storm flood ?
252
TRADITIONS OF THE DELUGE
If a lion had come and had lessened mankind !
Why hast thou stirred Tip a storm flood ?
19,j If a panther had come and had lessened mankind !
Why hast thou stirred up a storm flood ?
Famine might have entered and [devastated] the land !
Why hast thou stirred up a storm flood ?
Nergal (pestilence) might come and [strike] the land.
I have not betrayed the secret of the great gods.
Atra-hasis did I let see dreams (and so) perceived he the secret of the gods.”
When he came to his senses,
Inlil ascended upon the ship.
He grasped my hand, led me off (upon the shore).
200 He led my wife off, and made her kneel by my side,
he took hold of us (?) while he stepped between us and blessed us :
<fFormerly was Ut-napishtim a man,
for evermore shall Ut-napishtim and his wife be esteemed, like unto us gods ourselves.
Far away shall Ut-napishtim dwell at the mouth of the river.” Then they brought me far away, at the mouth of the river did they let me dwell.1
Besides this there were other fixed literary forms of the story. {a) Hilprecht fragment,2 found at Nippur, dating from the beginning of the third millennium :
    thee ....
   I will unloose.
   all mankind shall be washed away,
   all life, before the Flood breaks forth,
   upon all that may be there, will I bring destruction
and annihilation,
   build a great ship and
   full high shall it be builded.
   it shall be a house boat, that bears all that shall be
rescued of the living.
   and it shall have a strong roof.
   [The boat] which thou shalt make ....
hide therein the beast of the field, the bird of heaven .... in place of a great multitude ....
.... and the family   
1   In Berossus, Xisuthros, his wife, his daughter, and the steersman live with the gods, the others return to Babylon.
2   The Babylonian Expedition, Series D, vol. v., text i. The Earliest Version of the Babylonian Deluge Story, Philadelphia, 1910.
THE DELUGE IN CUNEIFORM
253
(b) The text D.T., 42,1 from the library of Assurbanipal, in which Ut-napishtim bears the name Atrahasis, “ chief in prudence'"' (which on table xi. of the epic of Gilgamesh is a pseudonym), as a proper name :
[when arrived] the time, which I will describe to thee, go into the ship, close again the doors of the ship.
Bring in hither thy corn, thy possessions and goods, thy [wife], thy male and female family, the artisans, cattle of the field, beasts of the field, so many as eat green food,
I will send to thee, they shall guard thy door.
Atra-hasis opened his mouth, in that he spake, and he said unto Ea his Lord :
[“Never”] have I built a ship ....
Draw for me upon the earth a sketch (of it).
(Then) will I look at the sketch and [build] a ship.
.... draw upon the earth ....
   that thou commandedst ....
(c)   The mythological fragment of the time of Ammizaduga (about 2100 B.C.), which also tells of Atrahasis and which makes the Deluge (abubit) happen earlier. This text is closely related to another one dealing with Ea and Atrahasis, which tells of temptations which come because of the iniquity of man and which seems to culminate in the Deluge.'2
(d)   The text of the “ Babylonian map of the world ” (see fig. 9), which mentions Ut-napishtim as king, predecessor of Dagan (?) .... and where it seems to tell of the “ Year of the raging serpent” (mushrushshu); comp. p. 238 above, and pp. 18 f.
A remnant of the tradition lies also in the designation of the mounds (now called “Tel”) as til nbubi. Hammurabi says that he will make the land of those who do not obey his laws like til cibnbi, that is, “mounds of the Deluge” (H.C., xxvii. 79 f.). They looked upon the ruinous hills as results of the great flood.3
O
1   Latest translation, K.T., 94 f.
2   Both texts and translations in K.B., iv. 1, 2S8 ff., 274 ff. ; see Zimmern, K.A.T., 3rd ed., 552 ff. Further, upon the subject, 261 f., comp. 227.
s Winckler, Die Geseize Hammurabis, pp. 80 f.