Looking for Jesus according to Matthew

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Mesopotamian Education 11)​

The student's life in pursuing this goal, however, was not an easy one. The satirical poem Schooldays describes this life which included rising early and getting to school on time, the work involved, and the daily beatings the student might expect for infractions of rules, including talking in class, leaving the grounds without permission, tardiness, rising from one's seat without permission, or failing to produce clean copy (not having a "good hand"), among others. A Supervisor's Advice to a Young Scribe is another satirical work on student life in which the young scribe is depicted as essentially the slave of his teacher until graduation.

- Rising early!

- Getting to school on time!

- Daily beatings for infractions of rules (talking in class, leaving the grounds without permission, tardiness, rising from one's seat without permission, or failing to produce clean copy…)!

 

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Mesopotamian Education 12)​

Scribal Jobs & Works​

Once graduated, however, the scribe was recognized as an elite member of society, known as a dub.sar ("tablet writer") in Sumerian and a tupshar (or tupsharru) in Akkadian. There was no lack of opportunity for a scribe as work was guaranteed at every level of society. Scribes were employed by the palace for administrative and diplomatic work as well as for the composition of songs, hymns, and inscriptions praising the king and recording his accomplishments. The temple employed scribes in administration and copying of sacred texts, and businesses employed scribes to keep their accounts and carry on correspondence with suppliers and customers.

Aside from these opportunities, scribes worked as architects, in construction, as engineers, astronomers and astrologers, brewers, doctors, dentists, surveyors, mathematicians, musicians, or any other career requiring literacy and a high degree of education. Scribes could also work for themselves as freelance writers in service to anyone who paid them for their work. A scribe could be hired by anyone who needed a letter or legal complaint written.

- The scribe was recognized as an elite member of society!

- There were plenty of work opportunities!

 

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Mesopotamian Education 13)​

Scribes in ancient Mesopotamia created some of the most important works in world literature, including The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Descent of Inanna, and established genres still in use today as exemplified by The Instructions of Shuruppag (the oldest extant philosophical work), the Kesh Temple Hymn (the oldest extant work of literature, c. 2600 BCE), literary dialogues such as The Debate Between Bird and Fish, social commentaries like the Poor Man of Nippur and the Dialogue of Pessimism, dramatic monologues like The Home of the Fish, didactic works such as Inanna and Su-kale-tuda, and hymns like Shulgi and Ninlil's Barge or Hymn to Ninkasi which is both praise song and a recipe for brewing beer. These scribes are also credited with creating the world's first historical fiction through the genre known as Mesopotamian naru literature and setting down the first laws such as the Code of Ur-Nammu and the Code of Hammurabi.

 

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Mesopotamian Education 14)​

Conclusion​

The Akkadian priestess-poet Enheduanna (l. 2285-2250 BCE), the first author in the world known by name, learned her craft in the Mesopotamian scribal school, as did the Babylonian scribe Shin-Leqi-Unninni (wrote 1300-1000 BCE), who drew on earlier Sumerian poems to craft the standard version of The Epic of Gilgamesh. The names of most scribes, however, are unknown as their pieces would be defined today as work-made-for-hire, commissioned by their employer for a given purpose, not for self-expression, and attributed to the person who paid for it or published anonymously.

These nameless scribes, however, were ultimately responsible for the preservation of Mesopotamian languages, religion, and culture, and there were two famous monarchs – Shulgi of Ur (r. 2029-1982 BCE) of the Ur III Dynasty and Ashurbanipal of the Neo-Assyrian Empire – who understood this clearly. Shulgi of Ur not only encouraged the establishment of scribal schools throughout his kingdom but commissioned works for the express purpose of immortalizing his reign. Ashurbanipal sent delegations throughout Mesopotamia to bring back written works for the permanent collection of his library to preserve the culture "for distant days" – which, in fact, he succeeded in doing – and this was only possible due to the establishment and development of the Mesopotamian scribal school.

 

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Garee said:

Which religion of who?

The religion of lying signs and wonder as if true prophecy?

The Holy Father In James puts his stamp of approval on his own religious belief system Believers were without our heavenly Father as widows not married to Christ.

James 1:27;Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

The religion of the special care of the household of faith (the non-visible eternal things of God .

Eohsians 2:19;Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

Galatians 6:10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

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My answer:

- According to the Bible, the majority of mankind was destroyed except Noah and his family!

- According to the Bible, only two Hebrews got into the promised land, the rest died in the desert!

- According to the Bible, Jerusalem was destroyed twice and many died or became slaves or were sent into exile!

- Think about Revelation 13:16,17:

The Mark of the Beast

16 And the second beast required all people small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead,17 so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark—the name of the beast or the number of its name.

- Think about revelation 19:1,2:

1 After this I heard a sound like the roar of a great multitude in heaven, shouting:

“Hallelujah!

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God!

2 For His judgments are true and just.

He has judged the great prostitute

who corrupted the earth with her immorality.

- We are told about the earth!

- Think about the 1,000 years!

- Revelation 20:7:

7 When the thousand years are complete, Satan will be released from his prison,8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to assemble them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the seashore.

- We are told about people who are like the sand of the seashore!

- Now when you look at the history of religion, what do we learn?

- We look at the flood and the survival of Noah and his family!

- Then what is next? (Genesis chapter 10:6-12)

- We get the son of Noah, Ham!

- One of his sons was Cush!

- One of Cush's sons was Nimrod!

- Only two generations after the flood and here is Nimrod!

- And Nimrod built many cities and in particular Babel, Accad and Niniveh!

- It was the beginning of human civilization!

- And they developed religion, astrology and astronomy!

- Each city has its own god!

- Everything was organized around religion!

- And in fact it was the same structure as before the flood, religion made by demons who wanted to control men according to their own will!

- Then each civilization took the beliefs of the preceding civilization and adapted them till today!

- The Hebrews were warned by Yah.weh but they didn't listen!

- They mixed their religion with other religions!

- They were destroyed!

- Human history is just a mere repetition!

 

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The city of Eridu 1)

Eridu (present day Abu Shahrein, Iraq) was considered the first city in the world by the ancient Sumerians and is among the most ancient of the ruins from Mesopotamia. Founded in c. 5400 BCE, Eridu was thought to have been created by the gods who established order upon the earth with Eridu as the starting point.

- Founded in c. 5400 BCE!

- Eridu was thought to have been created by the gods!

- It is connected with the book of Genesis!

- But according to the book of Genesis, some of the sons of God went down to the earth and took as many wives as they wanted!

- They became demons and took the control of men!

 

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The city of Eridu 2)

The city was home to the great god Enki (also known as Ea by the Akkadians) who would develop from a local god of fresh water into the god of wisdom and magic (among other attributes) and stand with other deities such as Anu, Enlil, and Inanna as the most important in the Mesopotamian Pantheon. As Enki's home, it became associated with many of the most vital myths of Mesopotamia including those concerning an early paradise-on-earth.

- Each city was connected to one or more gods!

- Here we are told about Enki, Anu, Enlil and Inanna!

- We are told about the myth of an early paradise-on-earth!

 

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The city of Eridu 3)

The Sumerian King List cites Eridu as the “city of the first kings”, stating, “After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridu” and the city was looked back upon by the various city-states of Mesopotamia as a metropolis of a 'golden age' in the same way the writers of the biblical narrative of Genesis created a 'Garden of Eden' as their mythical paradise, most likely modeled on Eridu. The city was abandoned in c. 600 BCE, probably due to overuse of the land, and fell into ruin.

- We are told about the kingship who descended from heaven!

- Thus again the sons of God who became demons!

- And they became kings above men!

 

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The city of Eridu 4)

The First City​

The city of Eridu features prominently in Sumerian mythology, not only as the first city but also as the home of the gods.
The city of Eridu features prominently in Sumerian mythology, not only as the first city and home of the gods, but as the locale to which the goddess Innana traveled in order to receive the gifts of civilization which she then bestowed upon humanity from her home city of Uruk. Uruk vies with Eridu among modern scholars for the honor of the oldest city in Mesopotamia or even the oldest in the world.

The ancients certainly believed Eridu to be the first city and the Sumerian King List gives impossibly long reigns (some between 28,000-36,000 years) for their kings while Sumerian scribes maintained that kingship in the land first came from heaven to be established at Eridu. Scholar Stephen Bertman writes:

Tradition made it the earliest city to have a king before the days of the mythical Great Flood. Eridu's archaeological story can be traced back to at least the sixth millennium BCE. If the tradition of its antiquity is true, Eridu may well have been the first city on earth. (19)

- Home of the gods (or demons according to the Bible)!

- The gifts of civilization!

- Men became their slaves!

- They took control of them!

- They brought more violence to the earth!

- They brought destruction and the flood!

- What a gift!

- Of course, men have their responsibilities in the destruction and the flood!

- We will get a general repetition at Armageddon!

- And those who will survive will see another general repetition after the 1,000 years!

- Apparently, men are only good for that!

- They look definitely irresponsible!

- They are only animals!

- Superior animals, seriously?

- Apparently, the city existed before the flood!

 

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The city of Eridu 5)

If not the first, the city was among the oldest. The ancient Mesopotamians frequently built their cities ontop of the ruins of older settlements (as is also true of other cultures). Excavations at Eridu have revealed a sequence of construction dating back to the Ubaid Period (c. 5000-4100 BCE) and continuing on from there to reach its height during the Ur III Period (2047-1750 BCE) under rulers such as Ur-Nammu (r. 2047-2030 BCE) and Shulgi of Ur (r. 2029-1982 BCE) both of whom encouraged trade from the city, both long-distance and local. Glass from Eridu has been found in the ruins of the cities of Egypt.

At the same time, however, the city was never a powerful political site. Scholar Gwendolyn Leick notes how "Eridu was never the seat of a dynasty. Its importance was religious rather than political, as the site of the main sanctuary of Enki" (62). Enki, the god of wisdom, featured prominently in many Mesopotamian texts and especially in the tale of the Great Flood as told in the Atrahasis and the Eridu Genesis.

- The city was never a powerful political site!

- Its importance was religious rather than political!

 

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The city of Eridu 6)

Enki and Eridu​

Eridu, as noted, was the home of Enki and the center of his cult. Bertman comments on the ruins of Enki's temple:

The god's temple has been found and shows that it was rebuilt over the course of thousands of years. In its earliest phase (dating back to about 5500 BCE), it measured about 12 by 15 feet, was made of mud brick, and featured a simple podium or altar for sacrifices and a niche meant to hold a statue of the god. To judge by evidence found in a later niche - fish bones and ashes scattered on the floor around the altar - the god's favorite meal was freshwater fish. The temple's antiquity makes it the oldest in Mesopotamian architectural and religious history. (20)


- Home of Enki and the center of his cult!

- There was a temple!

- There was an altar for sacrifices and a niche meant to hold a statue of the god!

- Right at the beginning, statues were the basis for the cult of demons!

- So different from Yah.weh’s cult!

- The Hebrews copied the cult of demons by doing the same!

- Most religions have followed such corruption!

- Sacrifices remind us of Abel and Cain’s sacrifices in the book of Genesis!

 

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7) The Eridu Genesis

Enki was associated with fresh water, as was Eridu itself since it was located in the southern marshes of the Euphrates River, and so it is no surprise that both Enki and Eridu feature in the earliest of the Great Flood stories from which the later tale of Noah and his Ark was developed. The Eridu Genesis (composed c. 2300 BCE) is the earliest description of the Great Flood, pre-dating the biblical book of Genesis, and is the tale of the good man Utnapishtim (also known as Atrahasis or Ziusudra) who builds a great boat by the will of the gods and gathers inside 'the seed of life' at Enki's suggestion. Enki was instrumental in the creation of humanity and when Enlil, King of the Gods, grew tired of humanity's noise and decided to destroy them, it was Enki who preserved life on earth by saving Utnapishtim and life on earth.

The Eridu Genesis may have been the first written record of a long oral tradition of a time around 2800 BCE when the Euphrates rose high above her banks and flooded the region. Excavations at Ur by Leonard Wooley in 1922 revealed an eight-foot layer of silt and clay, consistent with the sediment of the Euphrates, which seemed to support the claim of a catastrophic flood in the area around 2800 BCE. Notes of the excavation taken by Wooley's assistant, Max Mallowan, however, showed the event was clearly a local, not a global, event.

 

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8) Another garden of eden and immortality

A proto-Genesis tale of the Garden has been found at Eridu in which Tagtug the Weaver (or gardener) is cursed by Enki for eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree in the garden after being told not to. Eridu is further associated with the tale of the great sage Adapa (son of Enki), who was initiated into the meaning of life and all understanding by the god of wisdom but was ultimately tricked by him and denied the one thing he most wanted: knowledge of life without death, to live forever.

The desire for immortality features prominently in Mesopotamian literature, and Sumerian writings specifically, and is epitomized in the story of Gilgamesh of Uruk. Uruk's link to Eridu is significant in that Eridu's initial importance was later eclipsed by the rise of Uruk. This transferrence of power and prestige has been seen by some scholars (Samuel Noah Kramer and Paul Kriwaczek among them) as the beginnings of urbanization in Mesopotamia and a significant shift from the rural model of agrarian life to an urban-centered model. The story of Inanna and the God of Wisdom, in which the goddess of Uruk takes away the sacred meh (gifts of civilization) from Enki, the god of Eridu, can be seen as an ancient story symbolizing this shift in the paradigm of Sumerian culture. The prosperous commercial center of Uruk superceded the rural Eridu.

 

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9) Eridu as Babel​

Even so, Eridu was an important center for trade as well as religion and, at its height, was a great 'melting pot' of cultures and diversity, as evidenced by the various forms of artistry found among the ruins. Under the reigns of Ur-Nammu and Shulgi, the city prospered. Bertman writes:

The citizens of ancient Eridu were [justly] proud of another structure [besides Enki's temple]: a mighty ziggurat dedicated around 2100 BCE by Ur-Nammu, king of Ur, and his son. Though its eroded platform stands only about 30 feet today, its base of oven-baked brick measures over 150 by 200 feet and once supported a far more imposing structure. (20)

The great Ziggurat of Amar-Suen (r. 1982-1973 BCE), son of Shulgi of Ur, in the center of the city has been associated with the Biblical Tower of Babel from the Book of Genesis and the city itself with the Biblical city of Babel. This association springs from archaeological discoveries which support the claim that the Ziggurat of Amar-Suen more closely resembles the description of the biblical tower than any description of the ziggurat at Babylon.

Further, the Babylonian historian Berossus (l. c. 200 BCE), who was a major source for later Greek historians, seems to be clearly referring to Eridu when he writes of 'Babel' as `Babylon'. His `Babylon' is in the southern marshes of the Euphrates and is patronized by the god of wisdom and fresh water. This association strongly suggests that Eridu is the original biblical Babel as the story of the great Ziggurat of Amar-Suen was most likely passed down orally before Berossus set the legendary structure down in writing.

 

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10) Conclusion​

Eridu was abandoned intermittently over the years for reasons which remain unclear and, finally, left behind completely sometime around the year 600 BCE. The cause is most likely overuse of the land. Scholar Lewis Mumford, who has studied the phenomenon of the city both ancient and modern, points out that a city will decline when it is "no longer in a symbiotic relationship with its surrounding land" (6). This is no doubt what brought down many, if not most of the great cities of Mesopotamia that were not destroyed in conquest.

As a popular religious and trade center, Eridu no doubt attracted many people as pilgrims and merchants, not to mention its citizens, and so the drain on the surrounding resources could have been quite significant and, finally, simply too much for the populace to endure. It is possible, even likely, that the city was periodically abandoned to allow the land to recover. Whatever the reason for its final abandonment, the ruins of Eridu today are largely wind-swept sand dunes. Very little now remains to remind a visitor of the once mighty city which was thought to be founded and loved by the gods.

 

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Eridu Genesis 1)

The Sumerian Flood Story (also known as the Eridu Genesis, The Flood Story, Sumerian Creation Myth, Sumerian Deluge Myth) is the oldest Mesopotamian text relating the tale of the Great Flood which would appear in later works such as the Atrahasis (17th century BCE) and The Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2150-1400 BCE).

The tale is also – most famously – told as the story of Noah and his ark from the biblical Book of Genesis (earliest possible date c. 1450 BCE, latest, c. 800-600 BCE). The story is dated to c. 1600 BCE in its written form but is thought to be much older, preserved by oral tradition until committed to writing.

The extant work is badly damaged, with a number of significant lines missing, but can still be read and easily understood as an early Great Flood story. Scholars who have studied the text generally rely on the later Akkadian/Babylonian Atrahasis – which tells the same tale – to fill in the blanks of missing text from the broken tablet. The story most likely influenced the Egyptian “flood story” known as The Book of the Heavenly Cow (dated, in part, to the First Intermediate Period of Egypt, 2181-2040 BCE) but certainly was the inspiration for the later Mesopotamian works as well as the biblical narrative of Noah.

The story was first discovered in 1893, during the period of widespread expeditions and excavations throughout Mesopotamia funded by Western institutions. The good man in this version of the tale, chosen to survive the flood and preserve life on earth, is the Priest-King Ziudsura of the city of Suruppak (whose name means “life of long days”). This same figure appears in The Instructions of Shuruppag (c. 2000 BCE) and as Atrahasis (“exceedingly wise”) in the later work that bears his name, as Utnapishtim (“he found life”) in The Epic of Gilgamesh, and as Noah (“rest” or “peace”) in the Book of Genesis.

 

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Eridu Genesis 2)

Expeditions & Discovery​

In the 19th century, western institutions, including museums and universities, funded expeditions to Mesopotamia in hopes of finding physical evidence which would corroborate the historicity of biblical narratives. The 19th century saw the unprecedented practice of increasingly critical readings of the Bible which questioned long-held beliefs regarding its divine origin and supposed infallibility.

Cuneiform tablets contained a number of stories which appeared in the biblical narratives & predated them; among these was the Sumerian Flood Story.

This age of skepticism would see the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859 suggesting that human beings, rather than created by God as “a little lower than the angels” (Psalm 8:5), evolved from primates. In 1882, the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche published his work The Gay Science, containing the famous line, “God is dead and we have killed him”, alluding to the seeming triumph of technology and secularism over traditional religious belief.

Prior to the rise of secular skepticism, and even during the period when Darwin and Nietzsche were writing, the Bible was considered the oldest book in the world, completely original, and of divine origin. This view was encouraged by the work of the archbishop James Ussher (l. 1581-1656), creator of the Ussher Chronology which, relying primarily on the Book of Genesis and referencing other biblical narratives, dates the creation of the world to 22 October 4004 BCE at 6:00 pm. Since the Bible was believed to have been written by God, it was infallible and could be trusted not only in dating the age of the earth but for any other aspect of human existence.

 

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Eridu Genesis 3)

The expeditions sent to Mesopotamia were supposed to find evidence supporting this view but found the exact opposite. Cuneiform tablets, deciphered from the mid-19th century onwards, challenged the traditional view of the Bible directly in that they contained a number of stories, motifs, and symbols which appeared in the biblical narratives and predated them; among these was the Sumerian Flood Story, the first known account of the tale people of the time knew as Noah's Ark.

The badly damaged tablet was discovered in the ruins of the ancient city of Nippur by an expedition funded by the University of Pennsylvania in 1893. It was left untranslated until 1912 when the German Assyriologist Arno Poebel (l. 1881-1958) deciphered it as part of his job for the University of Pennsylvania. The existence of a pre-biblical account of Noah's Flood - already made clear by George Smith's translation of The Epic of Gilgamesh in 1876 - suggested to some that the traditional interpretation of the Bible needed to be rethought while, to others, that a Mesopotamian account of a great flood corroborated the biblical story, just from another point of view.

 

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Eridu Genesis 4)

The British archaeologist Sir Leonard Wooley (l. 1880-1960) challenged this latter claim through his excavations at the ruins of ancient Ur in the 1920s. During the 1928-1929 excavation season, Wooley sank a series of shafts into the soil and determined there had been significant flooding in the region but that this was a local, not a global, event and, further, was not a singular incident but had happened a number of times when the Tigris and Euphrates rivers overflowed their banks.

Wooley's excavations were mirrored elsewhere in Mesopotamia by other archaeologists who came to the same conclusion. The historicity and originality of the biblical narrative of the Great Flood could no longer be maintained and Usher's Chronology was challenged and dismissed by scholars (although both are still maintained by Christians in the present day who maintain the so-called Young Earth View). Scholar Stephanie Dalley, commenting on further excavations in Mesopotamia throughout the 20th century, writes:

No flood deposits are found in third-millennium strata, and Archbishop Usher's date for the Flood of 2349 BC, which was calculated using numbers in Genesis at face value and which did not recognize how highly schematic Biblical chronology is for such early times, is now out of the question. (5)

The small tablet of the Sumerian Flood story found at Nippur, missing much of its narrative, had provided Wooley with the academic freedom to make the kind of assertions concerning the flood in the 1920s which would have been unthinkable a mere century before.

 

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Eridu Genesis 5)

Summary​

The Sumerian Flood Story begins with the creation of the world, the "black-headed people" (the Sumerians), and then the animals. The Sumerian gods who undertake the act of creation – An (Anu), Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursag – would remain among the most powerful Sumerian deities for centuries until they were eclipsed by Amorite theological paradigms under Hammurabi of Babylon (r. 1792-1750 BCE) and, later, the Assyrians.

After humans and animals are created, the gods decree the establishment of cities, beginning with Eridu which was considered the oldest city in the world. Each of the cities are given to a god to oversee – thereby establishing the tradition of every city having its patron deity – and reference seems to be made to the further establishment of irrigation systems.

- The Bible doesn’t say a lot about some angels going down to the earth

- We know that their actions increased violence on earth!

- Here we are told how demons organized themselves!

- They established and controlled cities!

- Every city was under the control of one demon!

- So different from Yah.weh’s authority!