Chapter XXI: Part II: The Religion of the Babylonians (11)

311 It is possible that the Hebrew Urim and Thummim were really
connected with the Babylonian “tablets of destiny.” The latter were
fastened “on the breast,” according to the Epic of the Creation,
like the Urim and Thummim of the Israelitish high priest. In _WAI._
iv. 18, No. 3, Ea describes a sort of magical breastplate, made of
gold, which was to be set with precious stones and fastened to the
breast. Nine stones are named, which seem to have been carved into
figures of the gods, like Egyptian amulets, since they are said to
be “the flesh of the gods.” Professor Zimmern even suggests
(_Beiträge zur Kenntniss der babylonischen Religion_, p. 91) that
Urim is to be identified with the Assyrian _urtu_, a synonym of
_tertu_ (_tôrâh_), “instruction” or “law.”

312 Compare the “ladder” of Jacob (Gen. xxviii. 12). A similar staircase
or ladder is represented on the conical or egg-shaped stone which
symbolised the moon-god of Harran (_e.g._ Lajard, _Culte de Mithra_,
54, 4).

_ 313 En-me_, literally, “lord of the voice,” appears to have been
pronounced _ên_ in Sumerian, since the Semitic _ênu_ was borrowed
from it. The word has the same root as _ên_, “an incantation,” and
the _ênu_ denoted the priest who “recited” the incantatory ritual.
He may thus be compared with the Egyptian _kher-heb_. There was an
_ênu_ or “chanter of Istar,” whose technical name was _ukurrim_, and
another of Ea, “the holy father,” who was called the _sennu_. The
incantatory formulæ, it must be remembered, relate for the most part
to Ea and Istar. Another class of the _ênu_ was called _sailu_, “the
magian,” in Assyrian (literally, “the questioner” of the spirits who
may have practised ventriloquism); in Sumerian the name may be read
_ên-lil_, “the chanter of the _lil_.”

314 I can still see no better etymology for _dimmer_, _dingir_, “god,”
than the one I proposed in my Hibbert Lectures (p. 143), viz. _dim_,
“to create” or “make.” From the same root we have _dim_ or _dimma_,
“offspring” (_WAI._ v. 29. 71), which illustrates the antithesis
between the Sumerian who regarded generation as an act of creation,
and the Semite who regarded creation as an act of generation. In
_WAI._ ii. 47. 29, _dim_ takes the place of _dumu_, “son.” _Dimme_
and _dimmea_ show that in _dimmer_ the final consonant is a suffix.

_ 315 WAI._ ii. 55. 27, iv. 25. 40. I have retained here the ordinary
rendering of “gazelle” for the Assyrian _ditanu_, though it is more
probable that its Sumerian equivalent _elim_ (perhaps the Heb.
_âyîl_) means “ram.” At all events _elim_ is given as _kuṡarikku_ or
“ram” in Sc. 315. But there is a difficulty about the god to whom
the name was originally applied. In _WAI._ ii. 55. 31-33, “the
princely _elim_,” “the mighty _elim_,” and “the earth-creating
_elim_” are given as names of Ea; whereas in _WAI._ v. 21. 11,
_elim_ is a synonym of the god Aṡari, and in Sc. 312 it is the
equivalent of El-lil. As “the ship” or ark of Ea was “the ship of
the antelope of the deep,” Ea must have been the antelope
(_turakhu_) rather than the ram or gazelle; and I believe,
therefore, that the transference of what was properly the name of
El-lil to Asari and Ea was due to the confusion that grew up between
El-lil after his transformation into the Semitic Bel and Asari after
his transformation into the Semitic Bel-Merodach. The ideograph
which denotes _elim_ represents a quadruped, sometimes with an eye,
sometimes with the ideograph of sheep, attached to it.

_ 316 WAI._ v. 52, Col. iv. 8.

317 Perhaps, however, the “divine seven” was descended from the seven
gods who were sons of En-me-sarra, according to _WAI._ iv. 23, No.
1. En-me-sarra means “the incantation-priest of the (heavenly)
hosts” (_ênu sa kissati_), and his “sons” therefore remind us of Job
xxxviii. 7. It will not be forgotten that Philo Byblius made “the
seven sons of Sydyk, the Kabeiri, with their eighth brother
Asklêpios (Ashmûn),” the first writers of history (Euseb. _Prœp.
evang._ i. 10).

318 It has been edited and translated by Tallqvist, _Die Assyrische
Beschwörungsserie Maqlû_ (1894), who calculates that it contained
1550 lines, or more than 9000 words.

319 The whole work is in the metrical form characteristic of Semitic
Babylonian. It has been edited by Zimmern, _Beiträge zur Kenntniss
der babylonischen Religion; Die Beschwörungstafeln Shurpu_ (1896).

320 Isa. viii. 19. The beginning, for instance, of the second book of
the Maqlû collection had to be recited in a whisper before a wax
image.

321 As the title of the latter work is sometimes written UD-MA AN EN-LIL
as well as UD AN EN-LIL, the real translation may be “when
(_enu-ma_) Bel,” rather than “Illumination (_namaru_) of Bel,” these
having been the opening words of the first tablet. Since, however,
it was translated into Greek by Berossos as a work of “Bel” (Seneca,
_Quæst. Nat._ iii. 29), the name assigned to it in the text is on
the whole to be preferred.

_ 322 WAI._ iv. 19, No. 2.

_ 323 WAI._ iv. 28, No. 1.

324 Literally, “the prophetdom” or “college of prophets” (_isipputi_).

_ 325 WAI._ v. 4. 86-91.

_ 326 Terêti_, the Heb. _thôrâh_. The laws which the gods have to obey
are meant.

327 Gilgames seems to mean “great father,” from _gilga_, “father,” and
_mes_, _i.e._ _mas_, “great.”

_ 328 Hist. Anim._ xii. 21. Sokkaros, king of Babylonia, fearing that his
daughter’s son would dethrone and slay him, imprisoned her in a
tower. Gilgamos, however, was born to her. By his grandfather’s
orders he was thrown from the tower, but saved by an eagle, which
caught him upon its wings. Philologically it is possible to identify
Sokkaros and Akris-ios.

329 Hilprecht, _The Babylonian Expedition of the University of
Pennsylvania_, i. 15. 26; Hommel in the _Proc. SBA._ xvi. pp. 13-15.
The inscription is as follows: “The deified Abil-ili(?), father of
the army of Erech, the son of Bel-semea, has restored the walls of
Erech, which were built in old times by the deified Gilgames.”

330 Professor Haupt, however, to whom we owe the “editio princeps” of
the Epic of Gilgames, believes that the description of the siege of
Erech does not belong to the Epic at all. He finds the beginning of
it in the fragment K 2756 c, generally assigned to the third book of
the poem. See his article on “The Beginning of the Babylonian Nimrod
Epic” in the “Johns Hopkins Semitic Papers” (_Journal of the
American Oriental Society_, xxii. 1 (1901)).

331 As Berossos has told us what was the pronunciation of the name of
the hero of the Chaldean Deluge, the disputes of modern
Assyriologists as to whether it was Pir-napistim or the like are but
labour lost. The true analysis of the name Xisuthros is still
unknown, though it is possible, but not probable, that George Smith
was right in seeing in it a metathesis of the title Adra-khasis
applied to several of the early Babylonian heroes. Adra-khasis means
“the very clever,” reminding us of “Mohammed the clever” in modern
Egyptian folk-lore.

_ 332 ´Samtu_, Heb. _shohem_ (Gen. ii. 12).

333 So Hommel, who is probably right in seeing in the word the name of
Saba in Southern Arabia.

334 Zimmern, indeed, has suggested that this latter text belongs to the
legend of Atarpi, which, however, has unfortunately come down to us
in so mutilated a condition that no certain interpretation of it is
possible. The discoverer of the tablet is more probably right in
connecting it with the story of the Flood.

335 Who here takes the place of Aruru.

336 The words “I will no longer dwell in your city, and turn my face
toward the ground of En-lil,” imply that Surippak was not far from
Nippur.

337 The mountain of Nizir was in the country called Lulubi or Luluwi by
the Assyrians, Lulu in the Vannic inscriptions. In the bilingual
inscription of Topzawa, Lulu is made the equivalent of the Assyrian
Urardhu, the Hebrew Ararat.

338 See my _Early History of the Hebrews_, p. 122 sqq.

_ 339 Loc. cit._, p. 126.

_ 340 Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit_ (1895).

341 It should be noticed that, as the voyage of Xisuthros lasted for a
Babylonian week of seven nights, so the voyage of Deukalion lasted
for a Greek week of nine days. Ogyges is but a local variant of
Deukalion.

342 See Meissner, _Alexander und Gilgamos_ (1894).

343 See my Hibbert Lectures, pp. 360-363, where the various passages
relating to the Babylonian Olympos are quoted.

344 The land of Arallu or Hades.

345 This, however, is rather the “holy mound” of waters, in which Ea had
his home, than the inland mountain of En-lil.

_ 346 Ur_ is the Sumerian word for “zone.” It is translated by _arâru_,
“to bind”; _etsêdu_, “to bind the sheaves” for harvest; and
_khamâmu_, “to bind” or “fix” laws.

347 From Mr. Smith’s words it is difficult to determine whether the
gates were in the first or second court, or whether (as seems the
more probable) the tablet intended us to understand that the gates
belonged to both courts.

348 The first stage was 300 feet square and 110 feet high, while the
topmost was 80 feet long by 70 broad and 50 high.

349 For the shewbread, see Zimmern, _Beiträge zur Kenntniss der
babylonischen Religion_, pp. 94, 95; and Haupt, “Babylonian Elements
in the Levitic Ritual,” p. 59 (_Journal of Biblical Literature_,
1900). Sometimes six dozen cakes were laid before the god, sometimes
three dozen, more often only one dozen, as among the Israelites. The
shewbread is called _akal pani_, which is the exact equivalent of
the Hebrew _lekhem happânîm_; and Professor Haupt has pointed out
that it was required to be unleavened (_mutqu_).

350 Cp. Gen. xi. 5.

351 The Sumerian _du_ has, of course, nothing to do with the Semitic
Babylonian _dû_, “a chapel” (unless, indeed, the latter is borrowed
from the Sumerian word). It is properly the equivalent of _tilu_, “a
mound” or “hill”; but as the _tilu_ or _tel_ was generally
inhabited, it came further to acquire the signification of _subtu_,
“a dwelling-place.”

_ 352 WAI._ v. 50. i. 5; 41. 1, _Rev._ 18.

353 See above, p. 374, note 1.

_ 354 Samassumukin_, ii. pp. 47-51. Nebuchadrezzar calls the Du-azagga,
“the place of the oracles of the Ubsu-ginna, the mercy-seat of
destinies, which on the festival of the New Year (Zag-muku), on the
eighth and eleventh days,” Bel announces before the assembled gods.
Jensen (_Kosmologie der Babylonier_, pp. 239-242) first pointed out
that the Ubsu-ginna was “the assembly-place” of the gods, which was
located in or upon Ê-kur, “the Mountain of the World” (_WAI._ iv.
63. 17.). It thus corresponds with “the mount of the Assembly” of
Isa. xiv. 13, and illustrates the combination of the theology of
Eridu with that of Nippur.

_ 355 WAI._ iv. 23, No. 1, translated in my Hibbert Lectures, p. 495.

356 De Sarzec, _Découvertes en Chaldée_, pp. 216, 217.

357 The _sangu_ was called _êbar_ in Sumerian, with which the name of
Eber in Gen. xi. 15 may possibly be compared.

358 Not “astrologers,” as has sometimes been supposed. _Kalû_ is
borrowed from the Sumerian _kal_, as _makhkhû_ is from _makh_. At
their head was the _abba-kalla_, _aba-kul_, or _ab-gal_, a word
which under the first form is used as a proper name in early
Babylonian texts. Assyrian colonists carried it to Kappadokia, and
Strabo accordingly tells us that the high priest of Komana was
called Abaklês. A Hellenised form of the title, Bakêlos, is given by
Hesychius, who renders it by “the grandee” and “the gallos-priest”
(see my note in the _Proc. SBA._ xxiii. p. 106). _Abgal_ is stated
to be the equivalent not only of the borrowed Assyrian _abkallu_,
but also of _bil terti_, “master of the law”; _khassu_ and _imqu_,
“the learned one” (like the Arabic _’alim_); and _mar ummani_, “the
craftsman” or “professional” (_WAI._ v. 13. 37-42). The relation of
_kalû_ to _gallu_ (Sumerian _kal_ and _galla_), “a servant,” is not
yet clear, though it must be remembered that the _gallos_ was the
“servant” of Kybelê. On the use of _kal_, “servant” in the Sumerian
texts, see Reisner, _Tempelurkunden aus Telloh_, pp. 20, 21.

359 So in a text quoted in my Hibbert Lectures, p. 81, “like Bel on the
mercy-seat of the destinies the prophecy shall be uttered, this
shall be said: ‘Bel has come forth, the king has looked after me.’ ”
A special class of “prophets” bore the name of _masmas_ (whence
_masmasu_ in Assyrian), which is translated _mullilu_, “the praiser”
of the gods (Heb. _hillêl_).

360 See my Hibbert Lectures, p. 79.

361 Ê-kua and Mâ-Kua, _bit-assaputi_ and _elip-assaputi_ in Semitic.
Jastrow mistranslates “dwelling-house” instead of “oracle” or
“prophecy”; the true meaning of the word was already discovered by
Oppert in the early days of cuneiform decipherment.

362 The _sabrû_ was distinct from the _barû_, whose name seems to have a
more general signification, and Professor Haupt is probably right in
regarding it as the _shaphel_ form of the latter. He gives _barû_,
however, too wide a meaning when he makes it denote a “diviner” of
every kind and sort. It is true that magic was taken under the ægis
of Babylonian theology, and that just as the _asipi_ or “prophets”
might be made to include the “enchanters” and “pronouncers” of
spells, so the _bari_ might include those who sought to divine the
future by examining the entrails of victims or by means of a cup
(cp. Gen. xliv. 5). But, properly speaking, the _barû_, like the
_sabrû_, “revealed” the future by means of dreams. Haupt’s
correction of _baddîm_ into _bârîm_, “diviners,” in Isa. xliv. 25
and Jer. l. 36, is brilliant (_Babylonian Elements in the Levitic
Ritual_, p. 57). The Sumerian equivalent of _barû_ is KHAL (or more
correctly _âkhal_); that of _sabrû_, PA-AL, where PA means “the
official.”

363 Thureau-Dangin, “Tablettes chaldéennes inédites,” in the _Revue
d’Assyriologie_, iv. 3, pl. xiii. 40, _Obv._

364 So too was a person of illegitimate birth, as has been pointed out
by Haupt (_Journal of Biblical Literature_ (1900), p. 57).

365 J. D. Price in the _Journal of the American Oriental Society_, xxi.
2, pp. 1-22. In the hemerology published in _WAI._ iv. 32, the
animal mentioned in col. 1, line 3, is not a gazelle, as I have
supposed in my Hibbert Lectures, p. 70, but a “goat” (Sumerian
_sikku_, Assyrian _sapparu_).

366 There is no question here of a scape-goat or anything similar. The
word “offspring” is _uritsu_, which is the regular equivalent of Bir
“suboles.” The addition of the words _sa amiluti_, “of mankind,”
confines it in this case to man. Already, in 1875, in my _Elementary
Assyrian Grammar_ (p. 123), I pointed out that it was connected with
the Arabic warats, which I see (like many other things of the same
sort) has recently been announced as a new discovery. The verb
_ittadin_, by the way, is an Iphteal, not a Niphal, and therefore
cannot be translated as a passive.

367 De Sarzec, _Découvertes en Chaldée_, iv. 1, pl. 4 _bis_. This was in
the time of king E-anna-du. A bas-relief of the time of Entemena on
the same plate, 5 _bis_ (_3b_), represents what may also be a human
sacrifice, one naked captive lying on the ground already slain,
while another is being led to execution.

368 References are given in Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and
Assyria_, p. 666.

369 The tithe was paid on the 5th of Ab; on the 16th of Tammuz, nineteen
days earlier, Gobryas had entered Babylon with the soldiers of
Cyrus.

370 A more comprehensive term was _ginû_, “the fixed offering,” which
included not only the daily sacrifices, but all other stated
sacrifices as well.

371 See my Hibbert Lectures, p. 72, note 2.

_ 372 WAI._ i. 65, ii. 19-21; 54. iii. 48-50. See Trumbull, _The
Threshold Covenant_, pp. 110, 116.

373 Cp. Lev. v. 7, 11.

374 Haupt, _Babylonian Elements in the Levitic Ritual_, pp. 60, 61.

375 Zimmern, _Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Babylonischen Religion_, p.
127.

_ 376 L.c._, p. 88, note 2.

377 On the early Babylonian calendar, see Radau, _Early Babylonian
History_, pp. 287-307.

378 The real reading of the god’s name is unknown. He was identified
with Nin-ip (_WAI._ ii. 57. 68), the sun of the south (_WAI._ ii.
57. 51), and therefore the midday sun—not the morning sun, as has
recently been maintained. Nin-ip was the messenger or “angel” of
El-lil of Nippur, and consequently Bil-’si is further identified
with “the moon of Nippur” (_WAI._ 57. 56), the angel of the lord of
the ghost-world being more properly the moon than the sun. When
Bel-Merodach of Babylon usurped the functions of El-lil, Bel-’si
naturally became Nebo, “the power of strength” (_WAI._ v. 43. 37),
who stood in the same relation to Merodach that Nin-ip did to
El-lil. Bil-’si was also the seventh of the _tikpi_-stars (_WAI._
ii. 49. 10-13, iii. 50-52).

379 Amiaud’s translation in _Records of the Past_, new ser., ii. pp. 83,
84.

380 Athenæus, _Deipnosophist_, 14.

381 The most obvious derivation of the Hebrew Purim is that which I have
proposed in the _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology_,
xix. 7, pp. 280, 281, little as it may suit certain fashionable
hypotheses. On the Black Obelisk (175), Shalmaneser says: “For the
second time the Pûr-festival of Assur and Hadad I celebrated”; and a
deed of sale (Rm. 2. 19) is dated in the eponymy of Bel-danan, B.C.
734, “in the year of his Pûr-office” (_ina sanê puri-su_). Pur,
which is interpreted “a lot,” has naturally no connection with the
Assyrian _bur_, which is stated to mean “a stone.” That we must read
_bur_ and not _pur_, is shown by the variant spelling _ba-ar_ (Sa 5.
iv. 10).

_ 382 WAI._ ii. 32. 16. The reading of Delitzsch and myself has been
called in question, the tablet having apparently been damaged since
we examined it, but all doubts have now been set at rest by K 93037,
_Obv._ 24 (published in _Cuneiform Texts_, xii. 6), where _sabattum_
is the equivalent of a Sumerian “_the_ day” _par excellence_.
Babylonia was the home of astronomy and of the sacredness of the
number seven, due to the fact that there were seven planets, so that
a seventh-day Sabbath was natural there.

383 Compare the Rabbinical phrase, “soiling the hands,” applied to the
inspired books of Scripture.

384 A translation of the whole text is given in my Hibbert Lectures, pp.
70-76. With the last prohibition, compare Isa. lviii. 13, “not
speaking thine own words” on the Sabbath-day.

385 Jastrow, _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, pp. 322, 323.

_ 386 Ædipus Judaicus_ (London, 1811).

387 So in the second book of the _Surpu_ series (_WAI._ iv. 59, Col. ii.
106, Col. iv. 7-9, translated in my Hibbert Lectures, pp. 508, 509);
_WAI._ iii. 66. _a_ 9, 13.

_ 388 Aufsätze und Abhandlungen_, ii. pp. 149-165.

389 See my Hibbert Lectures, pp. 177, 178.

_ 390 Expository Times_, ix. (1898) p. 522; March 1900, p. 270.

391 P. 316.

_ 392 WAI._ i. 51. 1, 13.

393 Pronounced Ên-sarra, Ênu-sa-kissati in Semitic.

394 See the translation of the hymn in my Hibbert Lectures, p. 301. The
text has been commented on by Fr. Martin, _Textes réligieux
assyriens et babyloniens_, pp. 77-80.

395 The god of the “great mountain,” see above, pp. 376, 452.

396 Zimmern, _Die Beschwörungstafeln Shurpu_, p. 3 sqq.

397 We may notice that it is the people, and not the king, who will
suffer for the misdeeds of the latter; cp. 2 Sam. xxiv. 17, and
Horace, _Ep._ i. 12, 20: “quicquid delirant reges, plec tuntur
Achivi.”

_ 398 WAI._ iv. 55. The inscription was first translated by George Smith,
_Assyrian Discoveries_ (1875), pp. 409-411, and by myself in the
_Records of the Past_, first ser., vii. (1876), pp. 119-122. Mr.
King has recently given the first part of the text in his
_Babylonian Religion_, pp. 217, 218.

399 Hommel suggests that _silân_, “the hollow place underneath the
earth,” is derived from _sa’ûlânu_, “sheol” (_Aufsätze_ und
_Abhandlungen_, iii. p. 347).

_ 400 Babylonian Religion and Mythology_, p. 83. See George Smith,
_Chaldæan Account of Genesis_, pp. 78-80 (II. 10-13, 16-23).

401 K 255, _Obv._ i. 19, _Ablu dannu mutir gimilli Bili abi-su_, “the
mighty son, the avenger of Bel his father.”

_ 402 Textes religieux assyriens et babyloniens_, p. xvi.

403 Martin, _l.c._, p. 14.

404 H. Gunkel, _Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit_ (1895).

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