The Hidden Bible

reply to post by Deetermined


Why is "God" allowed to do everything Satan is supposed to do, and yet when compared with him, Satan is evil and God is good? If we get tempted, it's God testing us. But if we get drunk, it's because the Devil made us do it. I think it's a matter of what happens, and people decide from there who was responsible. If something looks like a lesson, it was God. If it looks like a sin, it was Satan. But if it's an accident, or no one knows, then it was God. We just randomly slap labels on whatever happens, according to how we feel about it.

Where is the sense in that?

I think it's not God or Satan doing anything. I think it's us judging the situation, giving it a sense of reason, so we feel less victimized by the chaos of the universe. A feeling of control, you know?

reply to post by AfterInfinity


Hey, if you think there's any message close to resembling that in the "Hidden Bible", please feel free to share it here.

Do you think all of the ancient myths were just the creation of imaginative minds? Compare all of the myths with religious texts and you'll come to the realization that there's some hidden truth in all of them. I don't think all of these different people and cultures just made this stuff up. They are all too closely connected to one another. These ideas and stories were given to the people by "others" and it certainly wasn't God because although he may want you to know the difference between good and evil, He would never use confusion to do it.

reply to post by Deetermined


Marduk is not a Sumerian deity.

Marduk was the state-god of Babylon, meaning he was elected post-Sumer. While the city-state of Babylon was in power Marduk did hold reign as the King of the Gods, but he was not the only King of the Gods in Mesopotamian mythology.

In Sumer the original ruling force was Anu—the Distant Sky God—who had Enki as a son. Enki is charged with creating the fertile Earth, this is why Enki is the Fish-man (Capricorn) representing the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Enki has several sons, including Enlil, who is the Lord of the Storm, and becomes the father of the royal bloodline (Nanna, Utu, and Inanna—three more of the seven Anunnaki—being his children).

It was not until the Semites—Babylonians, Elamites, Kassites, Akkadians, etc.—conquered the Non-Semitic Sumerians that deities like Marduk, Tiamat, Apsu, Lahmu and Lahamu come into being. They are Babylonian deities, representing divine warfare and kingship, a trait of Babylonian and Semitic culture.

Sumerian mythology and religions were focused on agriculture, domestication of livestock, and farming. Inanna began as a grain-goddess, who weds Dumuzi, the seed of the crop and representation of the seasons. Enki was the god of underground springs, which nourished the crops and people. Ninhursag, the mother-goddess, was a representation of the feminine aspects of life; the womb and the seed from which all things are born. Enlil represented the seasonal rain-fall, which helped the crops grow. Nanna, as the moon-god, was their representation of lunar time, the calender by which they noted their harvests. Utu, as the sun god, provided nourishment, light, protection, and other life-sustaining commodities. The Anunnaki were agricultural.

In Babylon Enki becomes Ea, a god of strategy, wisdom, and intellect. Enlil becomes Ellil, the progenitor of the royal bloodline, and kingship. Ninhursag remains the same, only now she births champion warriors. Nanna becomes Sueno, the god of fortune, wealth, and authority. Inanna becomes Ištar, goddess of warfare, prostitution, and seduction. Utu becomes Šamaš, the lord of judgment and law. On and on. The deities roles change because the conquering cultures values were different.

This is easy to overlook if one does not know the difference between Sumerian, Babylonian, Ugaritic, Hattian, and Anatolian mythologies.

As for the creation of human being, Sumer and Babylon both have accounts of the creation of human beings.

In Sumer it was a combination of Enki and Ninhursag who made human beings. They had a bet with one another that each could make a being so totally flawed that the other could not give its existence meaning. Ninhursag makes 7 such beings, some lame, some blind, etc. Enki in turn finds a job for each and every one of them. Then, when it is Enki's turn, he makes a single being. It cannot eat, it cannot move, it cannot work, it cannot defend itself, or do anything. Ninhursag tries and tries to find purpose for the being, but fails. Enki then takes his being, and gives it to Ninhursag's 7 beings to be raised as the first infant.

In Babylon there are two accounts of creation.

In the original version of the Babylonian creation of man, called Atrahasis, Enlil (patron of the city of Nippur) is in charge, not Marduk. In this version, as I described, Enlil charges Enki to make human beings to bare the brunt of the labor for the Igigi (as per traditional Babylonian belief). He becomes upset at their noise, and general abhorrent behavior though. The Igigi persuade Enlil to kill man, so they may have peace. If you read the account of Atrahasis (separate from the Enuma Elish) then you'll find Enki disobeying Enlil all the time. By the end, Enki has done exactly as I described, and new human beings are created to compliment the remaining Immortal Humans.

This is why Gilgamesh pursues Utnapishtam in the epic of Gilgamesh. Utnapishtam (Ziusudra; Atrahasis) is an old-style human who is still immortal, from before Enki imposed restrictions on men.

In the second, the Babylonian epic of Enuma Elish, you have Enki slaying Apsu, and Marduk slaying Tiamat because no other deity could do it. Then, Marduk creates Heaven and Earth from Tiamat's body, as well as the first human beings out of his spit and breath, mixed with clay of the Earth, and the blood of Tiamat's champion, Qingu. In the epic, Man is made to work for the Anunnaki and Igigi, but everything beyond this is left absent. In fact, the Enuma Elish does not actually contain an account of the Deluge, or the toil of man. After Marduk's miracles, the text ends with the "Fifty Names of Marduk," where-in a slew of tertiary and tutelary deities (like Enki's son Asarluhi) are merged with Marduk.

Perhaps you should go further back in the Mesopotamian family tree?

~ Wandering Scribe

reply to post by AfterInfinity


"Real people" unfortunately can never be attested to more than subjectively.

As for records of the Anunnaki and their deeds, yes, there are mythologies from ancient Middle-Eastern sources, recorded down in cuneiform on clay tablets.

And yes, to the people of Sumer the Anunnaki did exist as flesh-and-blood beings. The Seven Who Decreed Fate, called the Anunnaki (Anu, Enki, Enlil, Ninhursag, Nanna, Utu, and Inanna) were believed to be actual "humanoid" beings which could be witnessed.

However, like all mythologies, they were granted super-human powers as well.

Dumuzi—the dying-and-rising god who represented the seasonal shift from winter to spring—for example, was endowed with the power to rise to new life every spring; much like Jesus Christ in later Christian mythology.

Enki was said to be able to irrigate the fields with his sperm, which the Sumerians associated with running water. Fun fact: the words for "sperm" and for "rain" in Sumer were the same thing.

But I digress. Whether a real figure named Utu existed, who helped the Sumerian people maintain law and justice; or if a being named Enlil existed who acted as their king, it cannot be more than speculated on.

What we do have, are the recorded accounts on the tablets of the people. I found a variety of these myths in:

1. Oxford World Classics: "Myths from Mesopotamia" by Stephanie Dalley
2. "Inanna: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer" by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer
3. "Adapa and the South Wind" by Shlomo Izre'el
4. "Jealous Gods, Chosen People: the Mythology of the Middle East" by Prof. David Leeming
5. "In the Beginning: Creation Myths from Mesopotamia, Israel, and Greece" by Joan O'Brien and Wilfred Major
6. "Near Eastern Mythology: Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine" by John Gray
7. "World Mythology: an Illustrated Guide" by Roy Willis
8. "The Dictionary of Mythology" by J.A. Coleman

For anyone too lazy to go and buy a book, there are also numerous websites online which have paraphrased or shortened versions of these myths. Often times though, these websites only discuss the Enuma Elish, and the Epic of Gilgamesh, ignoring others' like Atrahasis, or the myths of Inanna, Adapa, Ninurta, and Anzu. So, beware when you depend solely on online resources.

~ Wandering Scribe

reply to post by Wandering Scribe


Thanks for taking the time to give us a summary version.

You're right, I was taking information from a combination of the Enuma Elish as well as the "Sumerian Family Tree".

Attached is a copy of the Sumerian family tree showing both Enki and Enlil as well as the rest of the "family".

Now I need to go back and compare the Sumerian against the Babylonian stories.

www.halexandria.org...

Thanks again! It's hard to keep all of these stories and figures straight!



Edit: I'm adding a link to the Babylonian gods family tree to compare here.

en.wikipedia.org...

I was particularly fascinated with the Enuma Elish where it shows the "Relationship with the Bible" which I'll link too. It's fascinating how the characters all seem to represent the condition of the earth at the time that God of the Bible separated the sea from the sky and light from darkness.

en.wikipedia.org...