Messiah In The Old Testament Episode 4
Babylonian Creation Story
Welcome to Messiah In the Old Testament. Today we’re continuing our journey looking at creation stories from around the world. In our previous two episodes we looked at creation stories, first of all, from North America.
We went to the Native American people and specifically we went to the Cherokee Nation. And we looked at the Cherokee Nation and we learned that they transferred this story from the beginning of history, generation to generation, telling it in the form of oral tradition.
Their story keepers told it to the next story keeper and it was passed down generation to generation. And these storytellers would then tell the next generation about how the world began, with the heaven above, Galun’lati and then the giant granite arch that separated the heaven and the earth, but the earth was not yet formed.
Under the arch there was darkness and there was deep, formless water. And then we have heard about the heroics of the water beetle that went down and gathered the mud from underneath the water, brought it up and as it came up, it expanded and that turned into the earth. And then the great buzzard who flew throughout this land that was still wet and muddy. And when his wings went up there were mountains and when his wings went down there were valleys.
And then vegetation came and the animals came down from Galun’lati and then finally man came down to the earth that was prepared for him. Then we went to ancient China and we learned that the world was in utter chaos.
And that chaos was being caused by friction between the opposites, hot and cold, light and dark. And these opposites fought against each other and then finally they started working together and they created a giant, shaggy god and his name was Pan Gu.
Now Pan Gu resided inside this giant cosmic egg and all the opposites were still in there. And Pan Gu slept for 18,000 years and finally he woke up and he broke out of his cosmic egg, with great tumult and thunder, lightning and Pan Gu separated all the opposites.
And he pushed the light and bright ones up towards heaven and he pushed the dark ones down towards the earth. And he stood there between heaven and earth. And Pan Gu stabilized the universe. He was the one who came to balance the universe. And then finally, after he felt things were stabilized, he died. And when he died, he fell to the ground.
And when he fell to the ground he then turned into various things. His body was metamorphosed into the trees and the mountains and the rivers. And as he exhaled his final breath, his spirit then went into humans that were created from mud and then they became living beings. So that brings us to our episode today. Today's episode, to me, is really exciting and educational. You may not get into ancient Babylonian history and culture, but here it is, the Babylonian story.
We’re heading to ancient Babylon. Actually, the story starts a little more recent than that with the last king of Assyria.
His name was Ashurbanipal. He was an avid collector of tablets and cylinders and he created this giant library in the city of Nineveh. Well, as things go, he was defeated, the city was sacked, everything of value was stolen. His palace, including his library, was burned to the ground.
And it laid there in ruins underneath centuries and millennia of dirt and no one knew of Ashurbanipal's palace. Now back in the 1840s there was this big rush, it was almost like a gold rush. I mean there was a gold rush
going on in the US at the time. But there was almost this gold rush looking for antiquities and there was this huge thirst for antiquities. And museums in Europe were competing to get the best stuff. And the Louvre would be competing with the British Museum and so they would send these expeditions out. They had excavated around the city of Mosul because they knew that Mosul was kind of were Nineveh should be. Nobody had ever verified that they had discovered the city of Nineveh. So there excavations off to the west and they discovered what they thought was Nineveh, but it wasn't Nineveh. It was another smaller town. And then finally, a British expedition under the auspices of the British Museum began an excavation to the east of Mosul, on the east side of the Tigris River. And when they started their diggings, they discovered that they were indeed in the city of Nineveh.
They found gates and palaces and as part of their excavations they discovered the ruined library of Ashurbanipal.
Now these three guys that were working this archaeological dig, one of them his name was Austin Henry Layard. He was the money; he arranged the finances. Then there was a guy Hormuzd Rassam. He was from Mosul. He was a local historian and Assyriologist and he was kind of the brains behind this. And then there was George Smith who would go on later to write a large amount of material about ancient Assyria and Babylon. So, these guys were excavating. During the excavation Austin Henry Layard discovered some cylinders, some half tablet half cylinders, and they had writing on them. And let's talk a little bit about the writing.
There were three languages that were around at that time. One of them was called Old Babylonian also [called] Akkadian which is what these were written in. And then there was an Elamite Language and then there was a Sumerian Language. The languages were written down onto these tablets and Austen found these tablets.
And there were seven of them that went together. And these tablets were written in Akkadian which nobody understood Akkadian. The tablets contained a story that we now know has been around probably since before 1750 BCE. The fall of Sumer happened at that time and in the city states of Sumer we think that's where this whole creation story started. So, we’re talking 3 1/2 millennia [ago that] this material came about. And then it laid dormant under the earth from the time of the destruction of Ashurbanipal's palace until it was discovered in 1849. That was the year the excavation happened.
So, these tablets were then hauled back to the British Museum along with all the other artifacts, and they were catalogued. And this guy George Smith then went through all these tablets, poured through the tablets, and what he was really looking for was evidence of names that happened in the Bible. To confirm that the biblical story that we read in the Tanakh, in the Old Testament, that it was verified by these by these diggings. That was that the purpose [of his research].
So, same time, 1849, there was a publication about some writings that were found on the side of a mountain. And this was the Bisitun pass and the carving was actually on the side of Mount Behistun.
And it was a giant relief, kind of like a big billboard. And it had a picture of King Darius and it had a picture of these kings or satraps. They were kind of like subkings over the provinces and there was a rebellion. And King Darius put down this rebellion. And he has his foot on the neck of one of the satraps and all the rest of them are lined up behind his one with arms bound behind her back ready to find the same fate as the first satrap. So, this relief also came with inscriptions.
And the inscriptions were in three languages, one of which was Elamite Language, and they were the guys that conquered Sumer. Then there was the old Babylonian Language which is the Akkadian Language. And then there was a language called Old Persian. Now these were all cuneiform languages. And if you look at this relief, and I'll put a picture
of the relief up for you, and you can see everything's in this cuneiform writing. Now they understood Old Persian and that was the publication that came out in 1849.
And George Smith then was able to use the information from these inscriptions to unravel the language of the Akkadian, the Akkadian Language or Old Babylonian. So, there were titles for King Darius and there were some inscriptions about his accomplishments.
And they were able to go back and forth and work out the dynamics of the Akkadian language, work out the letters, work out the phonetics, work out all the mechanics of the language. So, then George was able to go through all of the archives and pick out these things. Now he found these seven tablets that all went together. And the title on these tablets, this was actually a poem like an epic poem, and the title was Enuma Elish. Enuma Elish, which later they were able to translate, means ‘When On High’ and it was a description of creation. Now this is not the only source for the Babylonian story there are other sources. Later, the Germans did further excavations 1910, 1926 and since there have been other excavations. And there's even an excavation going on as we make this video, just outside on the east side of Mosul, where there's an Italian expedition. And there's all these archaeological sites and they are turning them into a tourist destination where you can go see the ancient city of Nineveh including the gates and the ruined library and the palace and all that.
The story starts out as most creation stories start. The world is in utter chaos. Now the chaos is not being caused by the opposites working against each other like in the Chinese story. The chaos was being caused by waters that were fighting against each other. And the two waters that were fighting were bitter water which is salt water and sweet water which is fresh water. So, these two were fighting against each other creating all this chaos. In fact, in one version of the story, chaos is described as the mist that came up from all this fighting and that mist was also given the name of one of the one of the gods. So finally, the
bitter water and the sweet water were separated. Once they were separated, then out of the sweet water or fresh water arose a god and out of the bitter water arose another god.
The sweet water gave rise to the god Apsu and the bitter water gave rise to the goddess Tiamat. Apsu, male deity. Tiamat was a female deity. And the mist that was above, that the name was Mumu and he comes into our story in a little bit. So now you've established the first gods, Apsu and Tiamat. Now Apsu and Tiamat then mixed their waters together. And when they did so then, they created the next generation of gods. Now I'm going to tell you specifically the Babylonian version of this story. And we’ll see in other stories, other cultures, that depending on which temple you were worshiping at or which city you lived in, you would have a different god or goddess who would be your champion or your superstar. It’s kind of like in Great Britain with the with the soccer leagues. Everybody wears their shirt for their for their league [team].
This is the way it was in the ancient world as well. So, I'm telling you the story of Babylon, and their champion was Marduk. Now, Apsu and Tiamat gave birth to this next generation of gods. Some versions have a couple set of twins that are born Lahmu and Lahamu and then there's different versions of it. But in that the version I'm telling you, the eldest god that they created by mixing the waters his name was Enki. And in other versions you hear his name was Ea spelled E A, but in our version it's Enki. Enki was the eldest, so [we have] Apsu, Tiamat and Enki. Now Enki and the other gods, there were raucous, they were riotous, they were noisy and they literally were driving Apsu nuts. Because when he tried to do his work during the day, they were distracting him and he couldn't think, he couldn't work. And at night, they were partying and he couldn't sleep. So finally, he was at his wits end, so he went to Mumu, remember the chaos from the beginning of the story. He went to Mumu, who was his vizier or counselor or advisor and they all met together Apsu, Tiamat and Mumu. Mumu’s recommendation was that they should just get rid of the generation of gods that was making all the noise, causing all the trouble and start over. Well, this seemed really,
really like a good idea to Apsu, not such a good idea for Tiamat because they were Tiamat’s children, obviously. So, Apsu really agreed and he said, “Okay fine, I’m going to wipe out the next generation of gods.” Well Tiamat went behind Apsu’s back and went to her eldest Enki and told him about Apsu’s plan to have them all put to death. So, Enki created a potion or a spell, in some stories he had a magic circle that he put around Apsu and this put Apsu to sleep. So, while Apsu was asleep, Enki went in and he killed his father and he took his crown and he took his aura. And then the story says that on the remains of Apsu then, Enki built his empire, built his kingdom. So, Enki took over as the new king. Well, Tiamat did not intend for Apsu to get killed in this whole thing. She was intending that the younger gods be warned so they wouldn't get killed.
But now Tiamat turns her wrath on her eldest son Enki because he killed her partner, her consort, her husband, the king. So, then she goes and elicits the help of another god. So, she talks to a god whose name is Quingu, spelled Q U I N G U. Quingu then takes over as the new leader in the place of Apsu. Kind of like Tiamat’s consort although he’s never really described as a partner to Tiamat. But he takes over, she gives him the crown, or she gives him sorry, the Tablets of Destiny which are better than the crown. Because the Tablets of Destiny can be used to give authority or credentials for somebody who is in leadership and they also can be used to control the fates. So Quingu was given this place of leadership, validated by the Tablets of Destiny which he put over his head and wore them like a breastplate. So, here's Quingu given authority and power, able to control the fates, so he's ready to go. He's going to fight against these gods and wipe out these gods. Now to help them in the battle and the conquest, Tiamat creates several things.
Number one, she creates 11 monsters. Now these monsters, in the Enuma Elish are all listed and I'm going to read you the names of the 11 monsters. First of all was the Dragon, second Hairy Hero, then the Great Demon, Savage Dog, Scorpion Man, Bull Man, Fish Man and then there were Three Fierce Demons, so 11 in all. Now these were fierce, just
awesome creatures. They were serpent-like, they had venom in their tongues and their teeth, they had venom in their claws. And they were basically invincible because of all this this poison and dread that she poured into these beasts. So now you’ve got this army of 11 horrible beasts and you've got Quingu controlling the fates, leading this army. And then, then Tiamat calls up all the creatures from the chaos. They come like a force of demons; they call them just creatures of chaos. So, she puts on this whole army, dread, so whenever they were in battle against the younger gods there was just dread and fear. And the younger gods had absolutely no chance defeating Tiamat's army.
Now here comes our hero. His name was Marduk, remember. If we were in Assyria, in the in the city of Nineveh where Ashubanipal was it would be Ashur who's the hero of the story. But in Babylon, the hero is Marduk. And therefore, Marduk was the God that everybody worshipped.
In fact, the kings of Babylon were considered high priests or priests of Marduk and the religion was tied into the whole government. The king was both a king and a priest. So Marduk rose up and he swore an oath and he said I am going to defeat my mama. I am going to be the hero and I’m going to defeat all these all these creatures.
So, he went and fashioned a magic bow. So, he had a magic bow and a magic arrow and he used this bow and arrow and he shot his mother right in the belly. And her belly ripped open, all of her intestines spilled out and Tiamat fell to the ground dead. So, Marduk had defeated his mama and because all the dread and all this chaos and everything was coming from Tiamat, all the power that these 11 monsters had were coming from Tiamat. This was now suddenly cut off. So now they became less powerful. And Marduk and the younger gods just mowed through them. He conquered the 11 monsters and he put them under his feet. In fact, in the story it says he tied one to each of his toes and he and he stepped on these gods. And then he defeated all these creatures of the chaos and he won the day. So now Marduk is taking over as the primary
god. So, Marduk was the one that was revered. Marduk was the one that was worshiped. Now he takes the body of Tiamat, who is now fallen with her intestines spilled out, and he takes a sword and he cuts her in half, just cleaves her right in half. And he takes half of her and makes the heavens, the constellations, the seasons, the years, the zodiac all of that was put in order by half of Tiamat's body. And the other half then went into creating the earth, creating the mountains and the rivers and the valleys. And it’s said that her breasts became the mountains and the tears that came from her eyes became the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. So, Tiamat was then used to create the world. So, kind of like the Pan Gu story where Pan Gu’s body was metamorphosed into various things. Now we've got Tiamat’s body which is being metamorphosed into all those things. So now you've got the world, you’ve got everything set in place and you got man.
Now remember Quingu, we put Quingu on hold a little bit because Quingu was in charge of this army. He was the guy with the Tablets of Destiny, controlling the fates and all that. Well, he was conquered by Marduk and he was imprisoned and tortured and finally he was killed. And when he was killed, his blood spilled out and it was with the blood of Quingu that the man was created. And it’s said that Enki, remember Enki from the beginning of the story, the eldest of Apsu and Tiamat also called E A, Ea the god of wisdom. He came in and he used the blood of Quingu and he created man. Now the story might end here, but in the Babylonian version that goes a step further.
Marduk now has put everything in order. He's got all these gods now that are bowing down, worshiping him. He is the god of all gods and he's being adored by all the other gods. So, then he sets the order of things and he puts some gods on top of other gods and creates the whole system of the gods. And you’ve got man now. And man, originally was created to be a helpmate or a helper for the gods, but Marduk wasn't going to have any of that. He decided he didn't want to be bothered with the mundane running of the world, so he decided he would enslave man and man then would solely exist to serve the gods. So, man became a
slave to the gods and the gods dictated what man was going to do. And if man disobeyed or went away from what he was supposed to do he would be punished by the gods. And so, this whole sad history of domination by the gods of ancient Babylon were set in place. Now quite a story don't you think? And you can look at this story and see there are parts that are similar to the Pan Gu story, parts that are similar to our Cherokee story. We’ve got this concept of chaotic waters and this is a super common theme. You know in the Cherokee story; you’ve got the dark and the formless waters and the deep waters and then you got the chaotic waters being caused by the friction between the sweet and bitter waters. In the Chinese version it’s the ying and the yang fighting against each other. So, you you'll see all through there are similarities that are carried all the way through. And if you compare these to the Biblical Creation Story which we’ll get to here eventually. You'll see that, wow! all these stories have a lot of similarities between the biblical story. So, we’re going to continue in our next episode. From ancient Babylon we’re going to head over to Greece. And Greece has a really detailed, super colorful story which I'm going to really enjoy telling you. So, join me next time as we continue looking at these creation stories around the world. We’re leading up to the Biblical Creation Story and then we’re going to start revealing our Messianic Prophecies.
Thank you for watching our show today. We hope that you enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. Now, after watching this episode you might be saying to yourself, “Who is this Messiah that Dr. Smith is talking about?
Is he talking about the Christian Messiah? Is he talking about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary. And then lived a blameless and holy life on the earth, And then was tortured and crucified. And after he died he then was resurrected from the dead after three days. Then after people witnessed this, he was then taken up bodily by Elohim into heaven from the Mount of Olives.
Or is Dr. Smith talking about the Muslim prophet Isa. Isa Ibn Maryam, the messenger, who was sent by Allah to bring a message to the people. The Quran says he that lived a holy and blameless life, was born of the virgin Mary. He fulfilled all the Jewish prophecies in exact accordance. But one difference, instead of being crucified, he then was taken up by Allah into heaven before the Romans laid hands on him. And he awaits there now in the fourth heaven where at the end of days at the day of judgment he will be revealed to all.
Or is Dr. Smith talking about the Jewish Messiah? The Messiah who has not yet been revealed, that the entire Jewish world is waiting for his revelation. Now, the beautiful thing is that you can hold to any of these beliefs. And we can all still learn together about Messiah. We can learn about our Christian Messiah. We can learn about our Jewish Messiah. We can learn about our Muslim prophet Isa who will be revealed. It doesn’t matter what you believe. You can even be an atheist or agnostic and still learn from this program about Messiah. Now, I have to admit I am a Christian so I approach things, obviously, from a Christian point of view. And I promise you, as we reveal these prophecies, which I believe have all been fulfilled through Jesus Christ. Or will be fulfilled when he comes back, returning in the clouds in the same way he was taken up. I believe that all of this is true, but I promise you I will do my very best to present these prophecies from a neutral point of view. And try to keep my Christian bias to a minimum. Obviously, it will pop up from time to time but I will try to stay only in the Tanakh and try not to get into the New Testament very often. Now, if you want more information about Messiah, we have resources for you.
We have a website which is findingmessiah.org. Now, on that website you are going to find several resources. You will find links to all the videos, all the episodes that we have created so far. You will find links to download the transcripts of any of these episodes. And then you will find a section where you can get more information about Messiah through frequently asked questions. And then there is a section for 11
donation. If you want to come alongside our ministry at Finding Messiah.
Now, there’s going to come a time in this series where you are going to be confronted with the question: What are you going to do with Messiah? Who do you believe Messiah is? Which of these Messiahs do you believe Dr. Smith is talking about? And Messiah will become real to you if you look at all the information presented and come to your conclusions. So, join us as we continue our journey through the Old Testament Scriptures looking for all the Messianic Prophecies. And join us next time as we reveal those to you.
