Looking for Jesus according to Matthew

[JLG]

8)

At the beginning of the poem, Inanna says, "I will direct my steps to Enki, to the Apsu, to Eridu, and I will speak persuasively to him at the Apsu, at Eridu. I will make a request to the lord Enki," clearly indicating that she wants something from her father. Enki seems to be aware of her coming and orders his servant to make her feel welcome, to "serve her beer, in front of the Lion Gate, so that she feels she is in the house of her friend, so that she feels like a companion." Inanna sits down to drink beer with her father, and as they grow drunk together, Enki offers his daughter meh after meh until she has over a hundred. Afterward, Enki seems to faint from drinking, and Inanna, with the meh, quickly leaves Eridu, back to Uruk. When Enki wakes up and discovers he has lost the meh, he sends his servant Isimud to retrieve them. The rest of the poem recounts Isimud's futile attempts to prevent Inanna from reaching Uruk with the Meh. Inanna succeeds in bringing "the ship of Heaven to the gate of bliss" in Uruk, and "where the ship docked at the wharf, she named it White Harbor" to commemorate the triumph. The interpretation of the poem is that it symbolically presents the transfer of power and prestige from the city of Eridu to Uruk.

 

[JLG]

9)

Archaeological Evidence

Sumerian Origin

However, what is clear is that, for whatever reason, the urban revolution began in Mesopotamia and seems certain to have begun in the region of Sumer. The oldest cities mentioned are Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larak, Sippar, and Shuruppak, all of which are located in Sumer.
Regarding the various theories as to why it arose in Sumer and not elsewhere, Kriwaczek writes that some scholars see the rise of civilization as an inevitable consequence of evolutionary changes in the human mindset since the end of the last Ice Age... But human beings aren't really like that; we don't react without thinking. There should be room in history for the everlasting conflict between progressives and conservatives, between people who look to the future and those who look to the past, between those who propose "doing something new" and those who think "the traditional way is best"; between those who say "let's improve this" and those who think "if it ain't broke, there's no need to fix it." No major cultural shift has occurred without this confrontation first.

 

[JLG]

10)

Long ago, in the land known as Sumeria, people built a temple to the god who had conquered the forces of chaos and brought order to the land. These people later continued their god's work and established order throughout the land in the form of cities. The answer to the question of why this happened in Mesopotamia and not elsewhere can be more easily found by considering the culture of that particular society. The people of Mesopotamia, regardless of region or ethnicity, shared a common concern for establishing and maintaining order and, due to their religious beliefs, an almost obsessive attention to controlling the natural world. Therefore, it is not surprising that this culture was the first to conceive and build the urban entity that most completely separates humans from their natural environment: the city.

 

[JLG]

1)​

Mesopotamian Government​

The government of ancient Mesopotamia was based on the concept that human beings were created to assist and serve the gods. The high priest, the king, the assembly of elders, the governors, and any other officials were recognized as representatives chosen by the gods to care for the people in the same way a father would care for his family.​

- It looks like demons organize themselves to control everything on earth!

- Once you realize that, all the pieces of the puzzle can be put in their place easily!

- You can also easily understand why religion became essential right at the beginning!

- But not for the use people usually think of!

- On the contrary, to serve demons!

- As the devil did it right at the beginning, they turned everything upside down!

- We could say the other side of the mirror!

- Then you can easily understand why the majority of religious practices come from the beginning and from the demons!

- Then it is easy to understand why the majority has the mark of the beast on his forehead as the book of revelation says it in chapter 13!

 

[JLG]

1)

Mesopotamian religion, polytheistic in nature, was based on the worship of numerous gods and goddesses, with a religious hierarchy that reflected the social structure of the time. In this system, the gods were considered human-like, yet immortal beings with their own personalities, roles, and responsibilities. Mesopotamian religious beliefs and practices influenced other cultures, including monotheistic ones.

Beliefs:

Main Gods:

Anu (god of the sky), Enlil (god of the earth, storms, and agriculture), Enki (god of wisdom and water), among others.

Practices:

Worship of the Gods:

Offerings (food, precious objects), prayers, and religious rituals.

Gods Associated with Cities:

Each Mesopotamian city had its own patron gods, reflecting a strong identification between religion and local identity.

Influence on Daily Life:

Religion permeated all aspects of Mesopotamian life, from politics and economics to art and literature.

Beliefs about Death:

Funeral rituals, although not exactly known, could include cremation, burial, or throwing the body into a river.

Influence on Other Cultures:

Mesopotamia, as the cradle of civilization, had a great influence on the development of other cultures, including monotheistic religions.

Temples and Ziggurats:

Religious structures, such as ziggurats, were stepped towers dedicated to the gods.

Divinatory Practices:

Use of astrology, divination, and other methods to understand the future. Funerary rites:

Burials, cremations, or rituals related to the transition to the afterlife.

Writing:

Cuneiform writing, used on clay tablets, allowed for the documentation of myths, rituals, and religious beliefs.

 

[JLG]

2)

Mesopotamian religion, beliefs and practices of the Sumerians and Akkadians, and their successors, the Babylonians and Assyrians, who inhabited ancient Mesopotamia (now in Iraq) in the millennia before the Christian era. These religious beliefs and practices form a single stream of tradition. Sumerian in origin, Mesopotamian religion was added to and subtly modified by the Akkadians (Semites who emigrated into Mesopotamia from the west at the end of the 4th millennium bce), whose own beliefs were in large measure assimilated to, and integrated with, those of their new environment.

As the only available intellectual framework that could provide a comprehensive understanding of the forces governing existence and also guidance for right conduct in life, religion ineluctably conditioned all aspects of ancient Mesopotamian civilization. It yielded the forms in which that civilization’s social, economic, legal, political, and military institutions were, and are, to be understood, and it provided the significant symbols for poetry and art. In many ways it even influenced peoples and cultures outside Mesopotamia, such as the Elamites to the east, the Hurrians and Hittites to the north, and the Aramaeans and Israelites to the west.

 

[JLG]

3)​

Historical development​

Cultural background​

Human occupation of Mesopotamia—“the land between the rivers” (i.e., the Tigris and Euphrates)—seems to reach back farthest in time in the north (Assyria), where the earliest settlers built their small villages some time around 6000 bce. The prehistoric cultural stages of Ḥassūna-Sāmarrāʿ and Ḥalaf (named after the sites of archaeological excavations) succeeded each other here before there is evidence of settlement in the south (the area that was later called Sumer). There the earliest settlements, such as Eridu, appear to have been founded about 5000 bce, in the late Ḥalaf period. From then on the cultures of the north and south move through a succession of major archaeological periods that in their southern forms are known as Ubaid, Warka, and Protoliterate (during which writing was invented), at the end of which—shortly after 3000 bce—recorded history begins. The historical periods of the 3rd millennium are, in order, Early Dynastic, Akkad, Gutium, and 3rd dynasty of Ur; those of the 2nd millennium are Isin-Larsa, Old Babylonian, Kassite, and Middle Babylonian; and those of the 1st millennium are Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, Achaemenian, Seleucid, and Parthian.

Politically, an early division of the country into small independent city-states, loosely organized in a league with the centre in Nippur, was followed by a unification by force under King Lugalzagesi (c. 2375–2350 bce) of Uruk, just before the Akkadian period. The unification was maintained by his successors, the kings of Akkad, who built it into an empire, and—after a brief interruption by Gutian invaders—by Utu-hegal (c. 2116–c. 2110 bce) of Uruk and the rulers of the 3rd dynasty of Ur (c. 2112–c. 2004 bce). When Ur fell, about 2000 bce, the country again divided into smaller units, with the cities Isin and Larsa vying for hegemony. Eventually Babylon established a lasting national state in the south, while Ashur dominated a similar rival state, Assyria, in the north. From the 1st millennium bce onward, Assyria built an empire comprising, for a short time, all of the ancient Middle East. This political and administrative achievement remained essentially intact under the following Neo-Babylonian and Persian kings down to the conquests of Alexander the Great (331 bce).

 

[JLG]

4)

Stages of religious development​

The religious development—as indeed that of the Mesopotamian culture generally—was not significantly influenced by the movements of the various peoples into and within the area—the Sumerians, Akkadians, Gutians, Kassites, Hurrians, Aramaeans, and Chaldeans.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Rather it forms a uniform, consistent, and coherent Mesopotamian tradition changing in response to its own internal needs of insights and expression.

- A UNIFORM, CONSISTENT, AND COHERENT MESOPOTAMIAN TRADITION CHANGING IN RESPONSE TO ITS OWN INTERNAL NEEDS OF INSIGHTS AND EXPRESSION.

- A UNIFORM, CONSISTENT, AND COHERENT MESOPOTAMIAN TRADITION

- LET’S KEEP IN MIND SUCH TRADITION!

 

[JLG]

5)

It is possible to discern a basic substratum involving worship of the forces in nature—often visualized in nonhuman forms—especially those that were of immediate import to basic economic pursuits. Many of these figures belong to the type of the “dying god” (a fertility deity displaying death and regeneration characteristics) but show variant traits according to whether they are powers of fertility worshipped by marsh dwellers, orchard growers, herders, or farmers. This stage may be tentatively dated back to the 4th millennium bce and even earlier.

______________________________________________________________________________________

FIRST STAGE

=“THE DYING GOD”

= A FERTILITY DEITY DISPLAYING DEATH AND REGENERATION CHARACTERISTICS

 

[JLG]

6)

A second stage, characterized by a visualization of the gods as human in shape and organized in a polity of a primitive democratic cast in which each deity had his or her special offices and functions, overlaid and conditioned the religious forms and characteristics of the earlier stage during the 3rd millennium bce.

______________________________________________________________________________________

SECOND STAGE

= HUMAN GODS

= A PRIMITIVE DEMOCRATIC CAST

= WITH SPECIAL OFFICES AND FUNCTIONS

 

[JLG]

7)

Lastly, a third stage evolved during the 2nd and 1st millennia bce. It was characterized by a growing emphasis on personal religion involving concepts of sin and forgiveness and by a change of the earlier democratic divine polity into an absolute monarchical structure, dominated by the god of the national state—to the point that the pious abstained from all human initiative, in absolute faith and reliance on divine intervention.

______________________________________________________________________________________

THIRD STAGE

= PERSONAL RELIGION

= CONCEPTS OF SIN AND FORGIVENESS

= ABSOLUTE MONARCHICAL STRUCTURE DOMINATED BY THE GOD OF THE NATIONAL STATE

= THE PIOUS ABSTAINED FROM ALL HUMAN INITIATIVE

= ABSOLUTE FAITH AND RELIANCE ON DIVINE INTERVENTION

 

[JLG]

8)

As a result of this development, since the ancient Mesopotamians were intensely conservative in religious matters and unwilling to discard anything of a hallowed past, the religious data of any period, and particularly that of the later periods, is a condensed version of earlier millennia that must be carefully analyzed and placed in proper perspective before it can be evaluated.

______________________________________________________________________________________

- CONSERVATIVE IN RELIGIOUS MATTERS

 

[JLG]

9)​

The literary legacy: myth and epic​

Present knowledge of ancient Mesopotamian religion rests almost exclusively on archaeological evidence recovered from the ruined city-mounds of Mesopotamia since the 19th century. Of greatest significance is the literary evidence, texts written in cuneiform (wedge-shaped) script on tablets made of clay or, for monumental purposes, on stone. Central, of course, are the specifically religious texts comprising god lists, myths, hymns, laments, prayers, rituals, omen texts, incantations, and other forms; however, since religion permeated the culture, giving form and meaning to all aspects of it, any written text, any work of art, or any of its material remains are directly or indirectly related to the religion and may further scholarly knowledge of it.

- The more we go backwards through human history, the more religion is everywhere in every aspect of life!

- It is a conception that modern men can’t even think about!

 

[JLG]

10)

Among the archaeological finds that have particularly helped to throw light on religion are the important discoveries of inscribed tablets with Sumerian texts in copies of Old Babylonian date (c. 1800–c. 1600 bce) at Nippur and Ur, the Sumerian and Akkadian texts of the 2nd and 1st millennia from Ashur and Sultantepe, and particularly the all-important library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (reigned 668–627 bce) from Nineveh. Of nonliterary remains, the great temples and temple towers (ziggurats) excavated at almost all major sites—e.g., Eridu, Ur, Nippur, Babylon, Ashur, Kalakh (biblical Calah), Nineveh—as well as numerous works of art from various periods, are important sources of information. The Uruk Vase, with its representation of the rite of the sacred marriage, the Naram-Sin stela (inscribed commemorative pillar), the Ur-Nammu stela, and the stela with the Code of Hammurabi (Babylonian king, 18th century bce), which shows at its top the royal lawgiver before the sun god Shamash, the divine guardian of justice, are important works of art that may be singled out. Other important sources are the representations on cylinder seals and on boundary stones (kudurrus), both of which provide rich materials for religious iconography in certain periods.

- Apparently, there are a lot of archaeological resources!

- But it is necessary to look at them!

 

[JLG]

11)

In working with, and seeking to interpret, these varied sources, two difficulties stand out: the incompleteness of the data and the remoteness of the ancients from modern people, not only in time but also in experience and in ways of thought. Thus, for all periods before the 3rd millennium, scholars must rely on scarce, nonliterary data only, and, even though writing appears shortly before that millennium, it is only in its latter half that written data become numerous enough and readily understandable enough to be of significant help. It is generally necessary, therefore, to interpret the scarce data of the older periods in the light of survivals and of what is known from later periods, an undertaking that calls for critical acumen if anachronisms are to be avoided. Also, for the later periods, the evidence flows unevenly, with perhaps the middle of the 2nd millennium bce the least well-documented and hence least-known age.

- But there aren’t so many resources for older periods!

- Here modern people are told to be careful because we don’t think like people in the past!

 

[JLG]

12)

As for the difficulties raised by differences in the ways of thinking between modern people and the ancients, they are of the kind that one always meets in trying to understand something unfamiliar and strange. A contemporary inquirer must keep his accustomed values and modes of thought in suspension and seek rather the inner coherence and structure of the data with which he deals, in order to enter sympathetically into the world out of which they came, just as one does, for example, in entering the sometimes intensely private world of a poem, or, on a slightly different level, in learning the new, unexpected meanings and overtones of the words and phrases of a foreign language.

- If we want to understand the problem of understanding people from the past, we just have to travel to foreign countries who still live in the past!

- Or we can stay in our own countries and meet foreign communities!

- Then we will see the huge gap between two different communities!

- So imagine the past!

 

[JLG]

13)

Sumerian literature​

Mesopotamian literature originated with the Sumerians, whose earliest known written records are from the middle of the 4th millennium bce. It constitutes the oldest known literature in the world; moreover, inner criteria indicate that a long oral-literary tradition preceded, and probably coexisted with, the setting down of its songs and stories in writing. It may be assumed, further, that this oral literature developed the genres of the core literature. The handbook genres, however, in spite of occasional inclusions of oral formula—e.g., legal or medical—may generally be assumed to have been devised after writing had been invented, as a response to the remarkable possibilities that writing offered for amassing and organizing data.

- First oral-literary tradition!

- Second Sumerian literature = the oldest known literature in the world!

 

[JLG]

14)

The purpose underlying the core literature and its oral prototypes would seem to have been as much magical as aesthetic, or merely entertaining, in origin. In magic, words create and call into being what they state. The more vivid and expressive the words are, the more they are believed to be efficacious—so by its expressiveness literature forms a natural vehicle of such creativity. In ancient Mesopotamia its main purpose appears to have been the enhancement of what was seen as beneficial. With the sole exception of wisdom literature, the core genres are panegyric in nature (i.e., they praise something or someone), and the magical power and use of praise is to instill, call up, or activate the virtues presented in the praise.

- Magic!

- Literature to praise something or someone!

 

[JLG]

15)


That praise is of the essence of hymns, for instance, is shown by the fact that over and over again the encomiast, the official praiser, whose task it was to sing these hymns, closed with the standing phrase: “O [the name of a deity or human hero], thy praise is sweet.” The same phrase is common also at the end of myths and epics, two further praise genres that also belonged in the repertoire of the encomiast. They praise not only in description but also in narrative, by recounting acts of valour done by the hero, thus sustaining and enhancing his power to do such deeds, according to the magical view.

In time, possibly quite early, the magical aspect of literature must have tended to fade from consciousness, yielding to more nearly aesthetic attitudes that viewed the praise hymns as expressions of allegiance and loyalty and accepted the narrative genres of myth and epic for the enjoyment of the story and the values expressed, poetic and otherwise.

- Praising a god or a hero!

 

[JLG]

16)

Hymns, myths, and epics all were believed to sustain existing powers and virtues by means of praise, but laments were understood to praise blessings and powers lost, originally seeking to hold on to and recall them magically, through the power in the expression of intense longing for them and the vivid representation of them. The lamentation genre was the province of a separate professional, the elegist. It contained dirges for the dying gods of the fertility cults and laments for temples and cities that had been destroyed and desecrated. The laments for temples—which, as far as is known, go back no earlier than to the 3rd dynasty of Ur—were used to recall the beauties of the lost temple as a kind of inducement to persuade the god and the owner of the temple to restore it.

- The lamentation genre was the province of a separate professional, the elegist!

- It would praise dying gods, was used for the fertility cults, lost temples and cities!