Sabbath Origins
The Pre-biblical Origins of the Hebrew Shabbat
and its
derivation from the
2900 B.C. Shuruppak Flood
appearing in
The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Epic of Atra-Khasis
by
Original draft: 20 April 1999
Revisions & Updates through 11 May 2008
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Since the 17 Dec. 2000 posting of this article on the internet at this website there have been over 12,500+ accesses or visits to this url. My notebooks reveal that I had made this association by 17 April 1996 at the ripe old age of 53
(born 1943), it later being offered as "a paper" via an e-mail attachment to posters at the now defunct as of 2002 on-line Orion Discussion List then hosted by The Hebrew University, Jerusalem by 20 April 1999 when I was aged 56. I also made this e-mail attachment available to interested participants of the b-Hebrew List on 04 December 1999. Now (2008) I am aged 65.
A "warning" to the viewer (especially if you are a _devout_ Christian, Jew or Moslem):
My research at this website is that of a Secular Humanist. Secular Humanists understand that the Bible is _not_ the word of God (for the reasons why please click here). Secular Humanists seek to explain the Bible's concepts as evolving from within the context of the Ancient Near East and its religious notions regarding the origins of the world, why man was created and what his purpose in life is. If asked to briefly summarize _my_ understanding of the Hebrew God, Yahweh-Elohim, it would be best encapsulated by the Latin Motto now found on the money of the United States of America: E PLURIBUS UNUM: "From Many, One." That is to say I understand that the Hebrews took the many gods and goddesses of Mesopotamia, Syria, Canaan and Phoenicia, and ascribed their powers, feats, epithets and personas to their God. Whereas MANY GODS and GODDESSES were responsible for the Shuruppak Flood in the Hebrew transformation and recasting as Noah's Flood it is only ONE GOD who is responsible. I understand that many of the Hebrew notions about the relationship between God and Man are deliberate _refutations_and_challenges_ of the beliefs held by the Mesopotamians, said refutations being in the form of a series of 180 degree "inversions" or "reversals" of earlier Mesopotamian concepts.
Please click here for my article "unraveling" the relationship between the Hebrew shabbat and Akkadian shabattu or shapattu, the 15th day of the month, the day of the full-moon, the day the Mesopotamian gods and goddesses "created" man, making him their slave to care for their city-gardens in eden/edin, in order that they might enjoy an eternal rest (or shabbat, if you will) from earthly toil.
Please click here for this website's most important article: Why the Bible Cannot be the Word of God.
For Christians visiting this website _my most important article_ is The Reception of God's Holy Spirit:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The historical background to the search for the pre-biblical origins of the Sabbath (Hebrew Shabbat):
Prior to 1872 many scholars accepted without question the Sabbath's origins as presented in the Hebrew Bible. Things changed after 1872. Why? In that year a British scholar called George Smith, who worked for the British Museum in London discovered a Mesopotamian account of a great flood that destroyed the world while reading cuneiform tablets excavated from the Assyrian Kings' Palace Library at Nineveh the capital of ancient Assyria (destroyed in 612 B.C. by Medes and Babylonians). This account noted that a god had warned one man to build a great boat and put aboard it the seed of man and animalkind for a new post-flood beginning. He released birds three times like Noah to test the abatement of the flood waters before leaving the boat and then he gave a thank-offering to his god for being forewarned and spared like Noah.
The news of this discovery electrified the Christian world: at last an extra-biblical document had verified the biblical flood account. However, this discovery caused some scholars to wonder _why_ the Mesopotamian and biblical accounts varied from each other in many details. Some proposed that both accounts arose independently of each other from one event, a real flood. Others suggested the Hebrew account had borrowed from the Mesopotamian and had for unknown reasons recast the details. Scholars are still divided to this day on this issue. Some Conservative scholars argue there is _no_ borrowing while more Liberal scholars understand that there _is_ borrowing, acknowledging that the details have been recast and transformed. Smith in 1875 wrote a book (published at London in 1876) on his discoveries from the cuneiform tablets. He appears to have understood that the Hebrews in the Book of Genesis had recast Mesopotamian accounts about man's origins and his demise in a flood. He titled his book
The Chaldean Genesis. Later scolarship would come to call the cuneiform account preserving the Flood that Smith had shared in 1872 with a startled world The Epic of Gilgamesh (Smith correctly deduced the account was made up of 12 tablets, he knew Gilgamesh as Izdubar and thought he was Genesis' Nimrod).
Those scholars who, after 1872, suspected that the Hebrews had recast the details in the Mesopotamian flood story into Noah's Flood turned their attention to the Hebrew Shabbat (English: Sabbath). Was it possible that the Hebrews had recast a Mesopotamian story about gods resting on a seventh day and transformed this motif into one God resting on a seventh day?
For over 100 years, since 1872, various professional scholars have tried their hand at attempting to identify in the Mesopotamian literature an event that was recast by the Hebrews into the Sabbath. As noted by the Encyclopedia Britannica, which I accessed in January of 2008, they have _not_ been successful (cf. below for further details).
Please click here for my article on the 2900 B.C. Shuruppak Flood and what Archaeologists found at this site (Shuruppak) when excavated in 1931, causing them to realize that this flood did _not_ engulf the whole world as portrayed in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Atra-Khasis Epic.
For me, Genesis is _denying_ the Mesopotamian myths' explanation of how and why man came to made, what his purpose on earth is, and why his demise was sought in a flood. These "_denials_ are accomplished by taking Mesopotamian motifs from a variety of sometimes contradicting myths, fusing them together into a "New Story" giving them a number of "new twists" by changing the names of the characters, the locations, and sequences of events. In _agreement with_ Professor Wenham I understand that the Hebrews are _not_ "copying" the Mesopotamian myths, they are _recasting_ certain motifs and concepts within them inorder to deny, refute and challenge them.
Professor Wenham (Senior Professor of the Old Testament at Cheltenham & Glouster College, Cheltenham, England) has done a brilliant presentation, in my opinion, on explaining what Genesis is _really all about_, in its transformation and reinterpretation of the Ancient Mesopotamian concepts regarding the relationship between Man and God. IT IS A POLEMIC, A CHALLENGE OF THE VIEWS held by the Mesopotamians of God's relationship with Man, A CHALLENGE OF THE MESOPOTAMIAN VIEWS ON HOW MAN CAME TO BE MADE AND WHY HIS DEMISE WAS SOUGHT IN A FLOOD:
Wenham (Emphasis mine in capitals, bold print and italics):
"Though Genesis shares many of the theological presuppositions of the ancient world, most of the stories found in these chapters are BEST READ AS PRESENTING AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW TO THOSE GENERALLY ACCEPTED IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST. Genesis 1-11 is a tract for the times challenging ancient assumptions about the nature of God, the world and mankind (p. xlv). An understanding of ancient oriental mythology is essential if we are to appreciate the points Genesis 1-11 was making then (p. xlvi)...It is my conviction that many of our problems are caused by misunderstanding the original intentions of Genesis...many of the individual episodes in Genesis 1-11 may be seen to have a distinctly polemical thrust in their own right, particularly against the religious ideas associated most closely with Mesopotamia (p. xlviii)...Viewed with respect to its negatives, Genesis 1:1-2-3 is a polemic against the mythico-religious concepts of the ancient orient... _THE_SEVENTH_DAY_ is not a day of ill omen as in Mesopotamia, but a day of blessing and sanctity on which normal work is laid aside. In contradicting the usual ideas of its times, Genesis 1 is also setting out a positive alternative (p. 37)...We have noted that the overall structure of the material in Genesis 1-11 finds its closest parallels in the Sumerian flood story and the Sumerian king list and in the Atrahasis Epic, all dated to 1600 B.C. or earlier (p. xliv)...This is not to say that the writer of Genesis had ever heard or read the Gilgamesh Epic: these traditions were part of the intellectual furniture of that time in the Near East, just as most people today have some idea of Darwin's Origin of the Species, though they have never read it." (p. xlviii. Gordon J. Wenham. Word Biblical Commentary, Genesis 1-15. Waco, Texas. Word Incorporated. 1987)
"The ancient oriental background to Genesis 1-11 shows it to be concerned with rather different issues from those that tend to preoccupy modern readers. It is affirming the unity of God in the face of polytheism, his justice rather than his caprice, his power as opposed to his impotence, his concern for mankind rather than his exploitation. And whereas Mesopotamia clung to the wisdom of the primeval man, Genesis records his sinful disobedience. Because as Christians we tend to assume these points in our theology, we often fail to recognize the striking originality of the message of Genesis 1-11..." (p. 1. Wenham)
"In all these cases there is no evidence of simple borrowing by the Hebrew writer. It would be better to suppose that he has BORROWED various familiar _mythological_motifs_, TRANSFORMED them, and integrated them into a fresh and original story of his own. Whereas Adapa heeded the word of the god Ea and did not eat the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve rejected the Lord's command and followed the serpent." (p. 53. Wenham)
"If it is correct to view Genesis 1-11 as _AN INSPIRED RETELLING_ of ancient oriental traditions about the origins of the world with a view to presenting the nature of God as one, omnipotent, omniscient, and good, as opposed to the fallible, capricious, weak deities who populate the rest of the ancient world; if further it is concerned to show that humanity is central in the divine plan, not an afterthought; if finally it wants to show that man's plight is the product of his disobedience and indeed is bound to worsen without divine intervention, Genesis 1-11 is setting out a picture of the world that is at odds both with the polytheistic optimism of ancient Mesopotamia and the humanistic secularism and the modern world.
Genesis is thus a fundamental CHALLENGE to the ideologies of civilized men and women, past and present, who like to suppose their own efforts will ultimately suffice to save them. Genesis 1-11 declares that mankind is without hope if individuals are without God." (p. liii. Wenham)
It will be argued in this brief article that Genesis' Garden of Eden and its concept of a resting God setting aside a seventh day as a Sabbath rest day is derived -in part- from motifs associated with the 2900 B.C. Shuruppak Flood found in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Atra-Khasis (Atra-hasis/Atrahasis) Flood Story.
Introduction:
Two professional Bible Scholars noted that an impasse had been reached by 1972 regarding attempts to identify the pre-biblical origins of the Hebrew Shabbat or Sabbath. Their observations caused me to investigate in 1996 the Mesopotamian myths for myself to see if I could possibly find or identify some composition that had been "overlooked" by the professional scholars. This article is the result of those investigations.
Below, Professors Andreasen's and Hasel's comments on professional scholars having hit a brickwall in their attempts to identify the pre-biblical origins of the Sabbath:
Professor Andreasen (currently President of Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, a Seventh-day Adventist Seminary) noted in 1972, that attempts to identify the pre-biblical origins of Sabbath had reached an impasse:
"The interest in extra-biblical origins of the Sabbath has now subsided. It is generally agreed that the seventh-day Sabbath is old, dating back to pre-monarchial, and undoubtedly to Mosaic times. Beyond this point scholars now proceed with a great deal of tentativeness. It is recognized that the various hypotheses regarding Sabbath origins have exhausted the available source material without providing any final conclusions. The origin and early history of the Sabbath thus continue to lie in the dark. This does not mean that the quest for the original Sabbath has been completely in vain, for it has provided illustrations of special days which demonstrate some similarity of the biblical seventh-day Sabbath, which may have influenced it, or even helped formulate it, but this latter process is unknown. It is not surpising, therefore, that Sabbath studies should shift their attention from the extra-biblical to the biblical sources, and that is precisely what has happened."
(pp. 8-9. Neils-Erik A. Andreasen. "The Old Testament Sabbath: A Tradition-Historical Investigation." Missoula, Montana. University of Montana, in the periodical, Society of Biblical Literature. 1972)
Twenty years later in 1992, the late Professor Hasel (another Seventh-day Adventist scholar) made the following observations:
"The relationship between the noun shabbat and the Hebrew verb shabat, to stop, cease, keep (sabbath) in the Qal, "to disappear, be brought to a stop," in the Nip`al "to put to an end, bring to a stop," in the Hip`il, remains disputed. Scholars have argued that the noun derives from the verb or that the verb derives from the noun. While there is no conclusive answer, it seems certain that the noun shabbat cannot be derived from the Akkadian term shab/pattu(m). A possible connection of shabbat with the number "seven," has been left open. In this case the Akkadian feminine form sibbitim, "seventh," may be considered as an ancestor of the Hebrew noun shabbat, "sabbath," also a feminine form, which, if the relationship holds, may have originally meant "the seventh [day]." On this supposition "the seventh day" in Genesis 2:2-3 would receive further light."
(p. 849. Vol. 5. Gerhard F. Hasel, "Sabbath." David Noel Freedman. Editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday.1992)
After reviewing various scholarly proposals Hasel concludes echoing somewhat Andreasen's earlier observations:
"In spite of extensive efforts of more than a century of study into extra-Israelite Sabbath origins, it is still shrouded in mystery. No hypothesis whether astrological, menological, sociological, etymological, or cultic commands the respect of a scholarly consensus. Each hypothesis or combination of hypotheses has insurmountable problems. The quest for the origin of the Sabbath outside of the Old Testament cannot be pronounced to have been successful. It is, therefore, not surprising that this quest has been pushed into the background of studies on the Sabbath in recent years."
(p. 849. Vol. 5. Gerhard F. Hasel. "Sabbath." David Noel Freedman. Editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday.1992)
The Encyclopaedia Britannica (which I accessed on 24 January 2008) is apparently in _agreement_ with Andreasen (1972) and Hasel (1992), the pre-biblical origins of the Sabbath are still unknown:
"Scholars have not succeeded in tracing the origin of the seven-day week, nor can they account for the origin of the Sabbath."
This article in a nutshell:
In 1996 at the age of 53 I asked myself a simple question:
"Does there exist in _any form_ a notion of GODS RESTING ON A SEVENTH DAY in the Mesopotamian myths?"
The answer was YES.
I discovered that _ALL_ THE GODS RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY of the Shuruppak Flood because man who had disturbed their rest with his "clamor" had been annihilated by the flood waters and the resulting SILENCE allowed them to REST by day and SLEEP by night.
I came to realize that via an _inversion_ or _reversal_ (a "new twist" applied by the Hebrews to an old theme) Israel had probably transformed this notion, making it into God's "Sabbath Day."
A God (Yahweh-Elohim) came to REST ON THE SEVENTH DAY after _creating a world _(and mankind)
instead of _all_ the gods and goddesses RESTING ON A SEVENTH DAY after _destroying a world_ (and mankind) with a flood.
The biblical notion that God RESTED on the seventh day:
Genesis 2:1-3 RSV
'Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he RESTED on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God RESTED from all his work which he had done in creation."
Some scholars have objected to the common understanding of Sabbath meaning "to rest," and understand it means "to cease," as in "to cease or desist from working."
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary renders English "rested" from Genesis 2:1-3 as the Hebrew word [Strong 7673] shabath, a primitive root: "to repose, i.e., desist from exertion."
So I have an _alternate_ proposal, that my previous (above) observation could just as well be _alternately_ rendered:
A God (Yahweh-Elohim) CEASED on the Seventh day his work in creating a world (and mankind)
instead of the gods CEASING on the Seventh day their work in destroying a world (and mankind).
Please note the texts, Atra-Khasis and the Epic of Gilgamesh, do _not_ specifically state that "_All_ the gods RESTED on the SEVENTH DAY of the Flood." _This_is_an_inference_on_MY_part_. The Atra-Khasis myth notes the flood is sent to end man's noise which disturbs the gods' rest and sleep. The texts do state on the seventh day the flood ended and that on this day SILENCE or STILLNESS reigns on the earth, man is gone except those on Utnapishtim's boat. Thus _I_INFER_ that on the SEVENTH DAY this "SILENCE or STILLNESS" allows the gods to REST and sleep now.
The Atra-Khasis myth explains that Enlil (the Sumerian god residing at Nibru in Sumer, modern Iraq), objecting to mankind's noise cannot get any sleep, eventually he settles on a Flood to get his rest:
"Enlil heard their noise
and addressed the great gods,
The noise of mankind has become too intense for me,
With their uproar I am deprived of sleep...
The gods commanded total destruction,
Enlil did an evil deed on the peoples."
(p. 73 & 87. W. G. Lambert, A. R. Millard & M. Civil. Atra-Khasis, the Babylonian Story of the Flood with The Sumerian Flood Story. Winona Lake, Indiana. Eisenbrauns. 1999 reprint of 1969 Oxford University Press edition)
Professor Spieser on the STILLNESS on the earth with man's demise on the seventh day of the flood
(emphasis mine):
"When the SEVENTH DAY ARRIVED,
The flood (-carrying) south-storm subsided in the
battle,
Which it had fought like an army.
The sea grew QUIET, the tempest was STILL, the flood
CEASED.
I looked at the weather: STILLNESS had set in,
And all of mankind had returned to clay."
(p. 69. E. A. Spieser. "The Epic of Gilgamesh." James B. Pritchard. Editor. The Ancient Near East, An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. Princeton, New Jersey. Princeton University Press. 1958)
Professor Skinner (1910) on the "stillness" of the seventh day brought about by mankinds' destruction (emphasis mine):
"On the following morning the storm...broke; and it raged FOR SIX DAYS AND NIGHTS, TILL ALL MANKIND WERE DESTROYED..."
"WHEN THE SEVENTH DAY CAME, the hurricane, the Flood, the battle-
storm WAS STILLED,
Which had fought like a (host?) of men.
The sea BECAME CALM, THE TEMPEST WAS STILL, THE FLOOD CEASED.
When I saw the day, _NO VOICE WAS HEARD_,
AND THE WHOLE OF MANKIND WAS TURNED TO CLAY.
When the daylight came, I prayed,
I knelt, I sat, and wept,
On my nostrils my tears ran down.
I looked on the spaces in the realm of the sea."
(p. 176. "Flood." John Skinner. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis. Edinburgh, Scotland. T & T Clark. 1910, 1930 revised edition, reprinted 1994)
Professor Rogers' (Professor of Ancient Oriental Languages, Princeton University) translation of the above lines (1912) has the storm-tossed Sea "resting on the seventh day" and the Storm "falling asleep" on the seventh day. The Akkadian word for "rested" i-nu-uh recalls to mind the Hebrew nuah (Noah), which also means "to rest" (emphasis mine as well as the Akkadian words in brackets [ ]):
"Six days and nights
blew the wind, the deluge and the
tempest overwhelmed the land.
When the seventh [si-bu-u] day drew nigh, the
tempest spent itself in the battle,
which it fought like an army.
Then RESTED the sea [i-nu-uh tamtu], the storm
FELL ASLEEP, the flood ceased.
I looked upon the the sea, there was
silence come,
and all mankind was turned to clay."
(p. 96. lines 18-24. "The Babylonian Flood Story." Robert William Rogers. Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament. New York. Jennings & Graham. 1912)
Heidel on the SILENCE on the earth accompanying the seventh day and man's demise, "his turning to clay" (emphasis mine):
"Six days and nights the wind blew, the downpour, the tempest,
and the flood overwhelmed the land.
When the _SEVENTH_DAY_ arrived, the tempest, the flood,
Which had fought like an army, subsided in its onslaught.
The sea grew quiet, the storm abated, the flood CEASED.
I opened a window, a light fell upon my face.
I looked upon the sea, all was SILENCE,
And all mankind had turned to clay...
I bowed, sat down, and wept,
my tears running down over my face."
(pp. 193-194. cited from Alexander Heidel lines 127-141. p 85 ff. The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels. University of Chicago Press. 1946, in Rivkah Scharf Kluger. The Archetypical Significance of Gilgamesh, A Modern Hero. Einsiedeln, Switzerland. Daimon Verlag, Am Klosterplatz, Chur 8840. 1991)
The notion that SILENCE or STILLNESS allows a god TO REST is mirrored in the following account of the god Apsu (who is speaking to his spouse the goddess Tiamat at Eridu in Sumer, modern day Iraq). His decision is to destroy the gods his offspring to get rest from their "disturbance," apparently a euphemism for "noise" as the text mentions the obtainment of "silence" and "rest" with their destruction.
Note: Strong renders God's having "rested" in Ge 2:1-3 from the Hebrew [Strong 7673] shabath, a primitive root: "to repose, i.e., desist from exertion," and below Professor Clay speaks of the REPOSE and REST of Apsu and Tiamat:
The late (1866-1925) Professor Clay on the gods needing silence in order to obtain their rest (emphasis mine):
"Apsu opened his mouth, addressing her:
To Tiamat, the glistening one, he said to her:
"Their conduct is distressing unto me;
By day, I CANNOT REPOSE; by night I CANNOT REST.
I will destroy, I will ruin their course
That there be SILENCE, and that we may HAVE REST...
That by day thou may'st HAVE REPOSE by night HAVE REST."
(p. 192. "Enuma Elish." Albert T. Clay. The Origin of Biblical Traditions, Hebrew Legends In Babylonia And Israel. Lectures On Biblical Archaeology Delivered at the Lutheran Theological Seminary Mount Airy, Philadelphia. New Haven, Connecticut. Yale University Press. Yale Oriental Series, Researches, Vol. 12. 1923)
The Mesopotamian myths associated the seventh day resting of the gods with their having accomplished the death of mankind with the Flood, ending his clamor or noise which disturbed them. In the Bible Moses tells Israel that anyone who violates the sanctity of the Sabbath will forfeit his life. I see a possible relationship between the Mesopotamian myths and the Bible in that the gods' rest was accomplished via the demise of man who had violated their rest with his noise. I am suggesting here that the biblical notion that _man is to be executed_ for violating the Sabbath (associated with God's having rested on that day) is a "new twist" or "recast" of _mankinds' demise_ at the hands of outraged gods who's rest had been violated.
Exodus 31:14-15, 17 RSV
"You shall keep the sabbath, because it is holy for you; every one who profanes it shall be put to death...Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall be put to death...It is a sign forever...that in six days the Lord made the heavens and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed."
One of the keys to unlocking the mystery of the Sabbath has been provided by Professor Lambert who made the following observation (emphasis mine):
"The authors of ancient cosmologies were essentially compilers. Their originality was expressed in new combinations of old themes, and in _new twists_ to old ideas."
(p.107, Wilfred G. Lambert, "A New Look at the Babylonian Background of Genesis," [1965], in Richard S. Hess & David T. Tsumra, Editors, I Studied Inscriptions From Before the Flood. Winona Lake, Indiana, Eisenbrauns, 1994)
I understand that Genesis' Garden of Eden and the Sabbath itself are the result of "new combinations of old themes and new twists to old ideas," to paraphrase Lambert's penetrating observation. Both themes are found in the Epic of Gilagmesh but in a different format and with a different sequence of events.
If my above "hunch" is correct, that the Hebrews have, via a "new twist" _inverted_ the Mesopotamian storyline about how a god came to rest on a seventh day _after creating a world_ rather than gods "resting" on a seventh day after _destroying a world_, then Professor Campbell's below observation that his studies indicated that at times the Hebrews appear to be employing _inversions_ in their recasting of motifs and concepts appearing in the earlier Mesopotamian myths is of some relevancy here (emphasis mine):
"The first point that emerges from this contrast, and will be demonstrated further in numerous mythic scenes to come, is that in the context of the patriarchy of the Iron Age Hebrews of the first millennium B.C., THE MYTHOLOGY ADOPTED FROM THE EARLIER NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATIONS of the lands they occupied and for a time ruled BECAME _INVERTED_, TO RENDER AN ARGUMENT JUST THE OPPOSITE TO THAT OF ITS ORIGIN."
(p. 17. "The Serpent's Bride." Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. New York. Arkana & Viking Penguin. 1964. Reprinted 1991)
"No one familiar with the mythologies of the primitive, ancient, and Oriental worlds can turn to the Bible without recognizing COUNTERPARTS on every page, TRANSFORMED, however, TO RENDER AN ARGUMENT CONTRARY TO THE OLDER FAITHS."
(p. 9. "The Serpent's Bride." Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. Arkana. New York. Viking Penguin Books. 1964, 1991 reprint)
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Some Examples of Hebrew "inversions" of Mesopotamian Flood Concepts:
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Mesopotamian Concepts: Hebrew Inversions, Countering Mesopotamian Concepts
(New Twists to Old Ideas):
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Gods and Goddesses send a Flood. Only One God exists who sends a Flood.
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Flood is sent because man's noise disturbs Flood sent because man is a shedder of blood, a sinner.
the gods' rest.
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The Gods rest on a 7th day. Only One God rests on a 7th day.
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7th day of rest is _after_ a Flood. 7th day of rest is _before_ a Flood.
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7th day of rest is after destroying man & world. 7th day of rest is after creating man & world.
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After creating man the gods rest. After creating man God rests.
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Man's creation allows the gods to rest, Man's creation relieves God of caring for his garden in Eden
he will do their toil in edin's gardens.
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Every Mesopotamian city has a god's or a Genesis denies the existence of other gods.
goddess' garden that man toils in to There is only _one_ God, so there can be only provide food for them in the edin/eden _one_ god's garden in Eden, _not_ many gods' gardens
the uncultivated land surrounding the gardens. in edin.
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Edin in Sumerian means "back" as in a person's `Eden means either a place "well-watered" or "delight"
"back" and by analogy refers to the uncultivated in Hebrew and Aramaic. Some scholars have suggested
land or plain "backing" or "abutting" the gods' via either a homonym or homophone confusion edin
city-gardens and fields in ancient Sumer. came to be equated with `eden.
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Man's destruction allows the gods to rest Man's destruction gives God a brief respite from man's on the seventh day his noise being gone. violent ways which are upsetting to God.
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Gods are tearful over man's destruction. No tears from Yahweh-Elohim.
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Gods express regret over sending Flood. No regrets from Yahweh-Elohim over sending the Flood.
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Mesopotamian "Noah" sheds tears over man's No tears shed by Noah over man's demise.
demise.
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Enlil is accused of irrationally and impetuously Yahweh is portrayed as justly sending the Flood.
sending the Flood by his fellow gods.
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Innocent people are destroyed by the Flood. All who were destroyed deserved their annihilation
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The gods _are ridiculed_ and made fun of Yahweh is _not_ ridiculed or made fun of by the Hebrew
by the Mesopotamian author. author.
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Man is a victim of capricious, unjust Gods. Yahweh is a victim of unjust, undeserving, sinful mankind.
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The gods grew hungry over 7 days, realize they Yahweh does not need man to grow his food and feed him.
need man to work their gardens in edin/eden
to provide them with food.
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Man's noise was because he protested the Yahweh did not make man to relieve himself of toil in his
grievous labor in the gods' gardens of edin/eden Garden in Eden. He did not make man to be a slave, he
like the Igigi whom he replaced as a slave. gave him dominion or rule over the earth.
Agricultural labor is grievous for man because Genesis _denies_ agricultural labor for man was grievous
it was earlier grievous for the Igigi gods. for man (Adam) in God's garden of Eden. It became
grievous only after man was expelled from God's garden,
God _cursing_ the earth as punishment for man.
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The gods seek to limit man's population growth Yahweh commands man to be fruitful and multiply and
and accompanying noise by various means fill the earth with his progeny.
after the Flood.
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Neither man nor god wants to return to the Jew, Christian, Moslem eagerly look forward to a "return"
grievous toil in the gardens of edin/eden. to the Garden in Eden and a life free of grievous toil.
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The gods created man to toil in their place in Yahweh did not create man to obtain his Sabbath rest.
the gardens of edin/eden thereby giving themselves
at man's expense an eternal Sabbath rest.
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The gods deny man entry into their Sabbath rest Yahweh denies man entry into his Sabbath rest because
for who will grow the food & feed the gods? The man is an unworthy sinner.
gods will have to grow their food and lose their
Sabbath rest if they allow man to enter their
Sabbath rest from grievous toil.
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Man can not be better than the gods who's image There is only one God, thus there is no shedding of blood.
he was made in; the gods shed each other's Man's shedding of blood is a corruption of God's ways. blood _before_ man's creation, so man is a
shedder of human blood too.
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The only rebellion in a god's garden in edin "MAN," a euphemism for the Igigi gods, has been _recast_
is by the Igigi gods who protest the grievous as "Man" (Adam) who is removed for rebellion from the
toil. It is said "when the gods _were_MAN_ garden in Eden as punishment.
their toil was grievous." MAN'S (the gods')
rebellion causes their _removal_ from the
gardens of edin, Man (humans) being created
to toil in their stead.
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The REMOVAL of "MAN" (the Igigi) from the The REMOVAL of MAN (Adam) from God's garden in Eden
gods' gardens in edin because of rebellion for an act of rebellion is a CURSE, not a blessing, for
was a BLESSING, an end of their grievous toil. now his agricultural toil will be grievous.
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Man's purpose in life is to be a slave toiling in God created man and placed him in his garden in Eden
the gods' gardens of edin for ever, never to be to care for it on his behalf. God removed man from his
released from this bondage, for his slavery gives garden for rebellion, but one day he will allow man back
the gods their shabbat rest from toil for all into his garden of Eden and a life of bliss with no toil.
eternity. The gods will _never_ remove_ man God _intended_ that man would "always remain" in his
from their gardens in edin. Man's lot is to garden of Eden, his removal is just "temporary." After
toil in edin's gardens till death brings him a death, man will be restored to eden's garden and a life
release from the grievous toil. free of grievous toil.
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There is an "exquisite irony" here in the Mesopotamian account of how the gods obtained their Shabbat or Sabbath rest from toil upon the earth by their having created man to toil in their place in their gardens of edin/eden: Man's noise protesting his grievous labor in their gardens prevents them from enjoying their Shabbat or Sabbath in peace and quiet so they attempt to destroy him with a flood. But now they are back at square one, they must give up their Shabbat or Sabbath and return to the grievous toil in edin's gardens. These myths were a form of reassurance for man that his existence was guaranteed on the earth because the gods needed him to do their work, to raise their food and feed them. He was of value to the gods as a slave or servant. They did not create man as an act of love to have someone to fellowship with as taught by Judaism, Christianity and Islam. They created man to keep their bellies full! Yahweh-Elohim's belly was "kept full" by his slaves/servants at the Jerusalem Temple until it was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Romans in their putting down the rebellion against Rome. Like the Mesopotamian gods, Yahweh hasn't had a full belly for nearly 2000 years. But the prophet Ezekiel assures us that when the long-awaited-for Messiah ("Prince") finally arrives, God will be _fed again_ his favorite foods (Ez 45:13-25; 46:1-24).
Contra the Mesopotamian and Biblical myths that have the gods or a god creating man to be their gardener to work in their/his garden in edin/eden modern Scientists (Anthropologists) understand man began life as an animal without any concept of right or wrong, all that was important was daily survival and reproducing one's self. Man the animal began life foraging for food like the animals. He was an omnivore that ate animal flesh as well as plants and fruits contra the Mesopotamian and Biblical portrayal of him being a herbivore or vegetarian. Only after hundreds of thousands of years of foraging and hunting does he settle down and become a gardener creating gardens to grow food. So the Sciences (Anthropology, Paleontology, and Archaeology) _contradict_ the Mesopotamian and Biblical presentation of how life began for man. Life did _not_ begin 8,000 years ago (cf. Genesis' chronology) for man as a vegetarian and a gardener in a location called edin/eden (ancient Sumer, modern Iraq), it began millions of years ago in Africa as an omnivore, a wandering forager and later hunter (the anthropological preferred term is "hunter-gatherer").
Scientists (Geologists and Archaeologists) understand there was never in the earth's geological history a universal flood as portrayed in the Mesopotamian and Biblical flood myths (some Catholic and Protestant scholars date the flood to the 3rd millennium B.C.). Scientists (Archaeologists) understand that in the 3rd millennium B.C. a flooding Euphrates river at Shuruppak (modern tell Fara south of Baghdad) in Sumer (modern Iraq) became embellished into Atra-Khasis' and Noah's mythical flood which covered the mountains of the world.
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Professor Campbell very astutely and penetratingly noted that the Hebrews in the book of Genesis appear to have employed at times "inversions" or "reversals" which "turn about" Mesopotamian beliefs by 180 degrees (emphasis mine):
"The ultimate source of the biblical Eden, therefore, CANNOT have been A MYTHOLOGY OF THE DESERT -that is to say, a primitive Hebrew myth- but was the old PLANTING MYTHOLOGY of the peoples of the soil. HOWEVER, IN THE BIBLICAL RETELLING, ITS WHOLE ARGUMENT HAS BEEN TURNED, SO TO SAY, ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY DEGREES...One milllennium later, the patriarchal DESERT NOMADS arrived, and all judgements WERE REVERSED in heaven, as on earth." (pp.103, 105-106. "Gods and Heroes of the Levant." Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. Arkana. A Division of Penguin Books. 1964. 1991 reprint)
The late (1943-2006) Professor Tikva Frymer-Kensky understood that Israel's religion developed from and in refutation of Mesopotamian notions via counterpoints. Her notion of some Hebrew concepts being "counterpoints" to Mesopotamian notions seems to parallel Campbell's observation that the Hebrews are "countering" Mesopotamian concepts with inversions and reversals (emphasis mine):
"Many Israelite ideas about justice, society, and even religion developed from and _in counterpoint to_ Mesopotamian ideas."
(p. 83. Tikva Frymer-Kensky. In the Wake of the Goddesses, Women, Culture and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth. Ballantine Books. 1993. First Edition by Freepress 1992)
The Bible presents the Sabbath (Hebrew: Shabbat) as a memorial of God's having created the earth and humankind then his resting on the seventh day and Moses informs Israel she is to observe this day. In the Atrahasis Epic we are informed that the Flood is sent to destroy man whose clamor or noise disturbs the god Enlil (Ellil) at Nippur in Lower Mesopotamia.
Overlooked by many commentators is the _reason_ for man's clamor or noise!
The Atra-Khasis (Atrahasis) account reveals that the Igigi gods' clamor had been ignored by the Anunnaki (Anunna) gods (Enlil, Enki and An). Their clamor was their protesting the grievous labor building and maintaining irrigation canals and ditches to provide water for Enlil's city-garden at Nippur for 40 years, night and day. Only after a rebellion by the Igigi do the Anunnaki act and create man to replace them as laborers.
The Atra-Khasis myth tells us that when man is created the "clamor" of the Igigi is _transferred_to_man_! In other words mans' clamor or noise is apparently that of the Igigi: a protest over the grievous labor on the earth in the gods' gardens in the midst of the Mesopotamian plain known to the Sumerians as eden (edin), a desire for a _cessation_ of the labor and a _rest_ from toil in the gods' city-gardens of eden (edin) as enjoyed by the Anunnaki and Igigi. Please also note that the Atra-Khasis text describes the Igigi gods as "...WHEN THE GODS WERE MAN..." and describes them as creating a CLAMOR over their grievous work excavating the irrigation canals and ditches for the Anunnaki gods' gardens located in the eden/edin of Lower Mesopotamia. That is to say the NOISE or CLAMOR associated with man as the reason for his annihilation in a worldwide flood was earlier associated with the Igigi "...when they were like man..." and burdened with grievous toil.
Here we have the motif of _mankind desiring a rest_ from grievous toil as is enjoyed by the gods. The response of Enlil to mans' clamor is to destroy man with a Flood! Man will _not_ be allowed to enter into "the rest" from earthly toil in eden's (edin's) gardens as enjoyed by the gods. If man is given the boon bestowed on the previously noisey and clamorous Igigi and released from toil who then will care for the gods' gardens? The gods will have to care for their gardens, an onerous task that they dreaded! This myth explains why man was made and why he must work forever in the gods' gardens located in the midst of the Lower Mesopotamian eden/edin. The Mesopotamian myths portray Enlil as guilty of unjustifiably sending the flood which destroys _innocent_ men, women and children as well as animalkind (Enlil/Ellil being castigated by his fellow deities Ishtar/Inanna and Ea/Enki for this act).
To a degree, Genesis _agrees_ with the Mesopotamian myths, man does indeed face a life full of grievous agricultural labor but the reasons for this state of affairs differs. The Mesopotamians understand that man's labor in the gardens of the gods is grievous because it was earlier grievous for the Igigi gods. _CONTRA_ this notion Genesis claims that man's (Adam's) labor was NOT grievous! Yes, he is placed in a God's garden to till and care for it (Ge 2:15) but this was not grievous work. Grievous agricultural work for Man (Adam) begins _after_ he is "expelled" from God's garden in the Eden (Ge 3:17-19), just the opposite of Mesopotamian understandings that man's work in the gods' gardens of eden/edin _is_ greivous! The Mesopotamian myths have _no_ knowledge of man being expelled from the gods' gardens of eden/edin for then the gods would have to toil in their gardens to raise food for their sustenance and they would never ever want to endure that greivous toil again, hence the reason they created man in the first place. I understand that the Hebrews are taking Mesopotamian concepts about why the gods created man, placed him in their gardens of eden/edin and then later attempted to annihilate him with a flood, in order to refute these concepts. The Hebrews have a more noble concept of God, portraying him as loving and caring of man instead of callously exploiting him as an agricultural slave like the Mesopotamian gods.
The Mespotamian myths explained that the Flood which destroyed all mankind had been brought about because man's "noise or clamor" was disturbing the god's rest by day and sleep by night, year after year without let-up. These myths also noted that in the beginning the 7 great Anunna (Anunnaki) gods of Heaven had imposed back-breaking labor making and clearing irrigation ditches, by day and by night, without rest, on the Igigi gods confined to the earth. These gods are described as muttering, complaining and constantly creating "a clamor," which at first is ignored by the Anunna gods. The threatened rebellion by the Igigi gods is forestalled by making man from the ringleader of the Igigi, slaughtering him and mixing his flesh and blood with the clay. The myths at this point stress that with the making of man not only do the Igigi gods get to enter into "the rest from toil" enjoyed by the Anunna gods, but that "their clamor," their noisey complaining about hardwork is transferred to man. In other words, man's "noise" is because he is overworked and not allowed to have "rest" from his god-imposed toil (cf. pp. 52-62, "The Story of the Flood." [The Atra-Khasis version]. Benjamin R. Foster. From Distant Days, Myths Tales and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia. Bethesda, Maryland. CDL Press. 1995).
Professor Foster (Laffan Professor of Assyriology and Babylonian Literature and Curator of the Yale Babylonian Collection) on the Igigi gods clamor or protest over grievous toil and how this clamor is transferred to man, who is made of clay at Nippur and who is animated by the flesh and blood of an Igigi god who is slain for the purpose of creating man to labor in their place (emphasis mine):
"When the gods were man, they did forced labor, they bore drudgery. Great indeed was the drudgery of the gods, the forced labor was heavy, the misery too much: The seven (?) great Anunna-gods were burdening the Igigi gods with forced labor...[The gods] were digging watercourses, canals they opened, the life of the land...They heaped all the mountains. [ years] of drudgery, [ ] the vast marsh. They counted years of drudgery, [and] forty years too much ! [ ] forced labor they bore night and day. They were COMPLAINING, DENOUNCING, MUTTERING down in the ditch, "Let us face up to our foreman the prefect, He must take off this our heavy burden upon us! (pp. 52-53. "The Story of the Flood." [The Atra-Khasis version]. Benjamin R. Foster. From Distant Days, Myths Tales and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia. Bethesda, Maryland. CDL Press. 1995)
The Anunna gods acknowledge the burden of the Igigi and their 40 years of night and day "CLAMOR" (complaining, denouncing, muttering) is transferred to mankind upon man's creation (emphasis mine):
"Ea made ready to speak, and said to the gods [his brethren], what calumny do we lay to their charge? Their forced labor was heavy. [their misery too much] ! Every day [ ] THE OUTCRY [WAS LOUD, we could hear THE CLAMOR]. There is [ ] [Belet-ti, the mid-wife], is present. Let her create then a human, a man, let him bear the yoke...[let man assume the drud]gery of god...She summoned the Anunna, the great gods...Mami made ready to speak, and said to the great gods, "You ordered me the task and I have completed (it) ! You have slaughtered the god, along with his inspiration. I have done away with your heavy forced labor, I have imposed your drudgery on man. YOU BESTOWED (?) CLAMOR UPON MANKIND..." (pp. 58-59. "The Story of the Flood." [The Atra-Khasis version]. Benjamin R. Foster.
