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| I'm writing a book on the worlds the Earth has known, the deaths and rebirths of humankind. Welcome to my online research material. This is meant to be a vat of resources making themselves available for consideration and cross-fertilization. I didn't write any of the below words; they are from the websites I link to. I don't know if some of this stuff is true, or not; it will take a lot of digging in some cases. But meanwhile, this is a mixture of facts and ideas and beliefs and stories and myths and conjectures, that point to some mindblowing (and yet completely reasonable) conclusions. Stay tuned. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In the Book of Genesis, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (and occasionally translated as the Tree of Conscience, Hebrew: עֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע, Etz haDaat tov V'ra) was a tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9) from which God directly forbade Adam (Eve having not yet been created) to eat (Genesis 2:17). A serpent later tempted Eve, who was aware of the prohibition, to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge (Genesis 3:1-6). Adam also ate, and they became aware of their nakedness (Genesis 3:6-7). After this, in order to deny them access to the Tree of Life (and, hence, immortality), they were banished from the garden and forced to survive through agriculture "by the sweat of [their] brow" (Genesis 3:19-24).
Gordon and Rendsburg[1] have suggested that the phrase טוֹב וָרָע, translated good and evil, is a merism. This is a figure of speech whereby a pair of opposites are used together to create the meaning all or everything, as in the English phrase, "they came, great and small", meaning just that they all came. So the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they take to mean the Tree of All Knowledge. This meaning can be brought out by the alternative translations Tree of Knowledge of Good and of Evil (the word of not being expressed in the Hebrew) or Tree of Knowledge, both Good and Evil. The phrase occurs twice as applied to the tree, Genesis 2:9, Genesis 2:17. It also occurs twice as describing the knowledge gained Genesis 3:5 and Genesis 3:22 where it may be translated perhaps with knowledge, both good and evil. The Book of Enoch 31:4, dating from the last few centuries before Christ and purporting to be by the antediluvian prophet Enoch, describes the Tree of Knowledge: "It was like a species of the Tamarind tree, bearing fruit which resembled grapes extremely fine; and its fragrance extended to a considerable distance. I exclaimed, How beautiful is this tree, and how delightful is its appearance!"
In the Talmud, Rabbi Meir says that the fruit was a grape.[4] Another Talmudic tradition suggests that Eve actually made and drank wine.[5] Rabbi Nechemia says that the fruit was a fig[4]while Rabbi Yehuda, is that the fruit was wheat.[4]
In Western Christian art, the fruit is commonly depicted as an apple, (they originated in central Asia). The source of this apparently lay in a Latin pun: by eating the malus (apple), Eve contracted malum (evil).
Proponents of the theory that the Garden of Eden was located somewhere in what is known now as the Middle East suggest that the fruit was actually a pomegranate. This ties in with the Greek myth of Persephone, where her consumption of seven pomegranate seeds leads to her having to spend time in Hades.
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Garden of Eden
Location
lthough numerous scholars since 1898 have suggested motifs associated with Enkidu and Shamhat have been apparently recast and assimilated to Adam and Eve, I am _unaware_ of anyone _other than myself_ making the association of Eden with the eden/edin logogram used at times _in lieu_ of the Akkadian word seru or tseru appearing in the Epic of Gilgamesh, where the naked Enkidu and Shamhat engage in sex and then later clothe themselves before leaving eden/edin to dwell at Uruk. Please note that in the professional literature the Sumerian edin is also rendered as eden.
If someone in the professionally published literature (Journals, Manuscripts, Monographs, or Books) has already remarked on the appearance of the Sumerian logogram eden/edin in the Epic of Gilgamesh _being what is behind_ Eden's appearance in Genesis I would appreciate hearing from you dear reader "to set the record straight" and "give credit where credit is due." Please provide the author's name, publication, date of publication, place of publication and I will be pleased to post this information on this website.
I understand that Genesis' notion of a naked man and woman encountering each other in a garden _in_ Eden is a recast of motifs, concepts, and scenarios originally associated with Enkidu and Shamhat in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Apparently not widely known to many is that the steppe, plain or wild that they meet each other in at a watering hole is _not_ always rendered by the Akkadian word seru, seri, tseru, zeru, ce:ri, ce:ru. Sometimes _in lieu_ of this word a Sumerian logogram is being used, which transliterates into English as either edin or eden depending on the professional scholar's choice of spelling. That is to say the Akkadian scribe is _not_ consistent in always writing out seri (the "uncultivated land" abutting the gods' city-gardens in Sumer), sometimes he reverts to using a Sumerian logogram edin instead of writing out seri (seru). Why? Because the Sumerian logogram edin is a single sign, thus it becomes in effect, a "short-hand way" of writing seri/seru. My thanks to Professor Andrew George for pointing out to me that "steppe" or "wilderness" or "wild" wandered by Enkidu is rendered sometimes as tse-ri, other times by the Sumerian logogram edin in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
I am in agreement with Professors Jastrow (1898), Graves, and Patai (1963) that events associated with Enkidu and Shamhat appear to have been recast and assimilated to Adam and Eve. What these scholars "missed" was that the Sumerian logogram eden/edin sometimes used _in lieu_ of tseru or seru in the Epic of Gilgamesh may preserve the Hebrew `eden (English rendered Eden). Some scholars have suggested that as edin/eden is superficially similar in spelling and sound, that Hebrew `eden meaning "delight" or "place well-watered," came via a _homonym or homophone confusion_ to be a recast of the desolate semi-arid edin/eden. This homonym or homophone confusion strikes me as being very plausible.
A fragment from the Epic of Gilgamesh has been found on a clay tablet at Late Bronze Age Megiddo, so the story was known to the Canaanites who had scribes trained in writing cuneiform. Of interest here are clay tablets from the Egyptian appointed mayor of Jerusalem called Abdu Heba found in the archives of Pharaoh Akhenaten in Egypt warning him all of Canaan has fallen to the Habiru and only Jerusalem is holding out and to send aid before the city falls. We are told that the Jebusites lived in Jerusalem and that Israel intermarried with them. Perhaps it is via Jebusite scribes trained in cuneiform that the Epic of Gilgamesh came to be later recast as Adam and Eve in Eden by the Israelite descendants of the Iron Age I and II intermarriages with cuneiform-literate Jebusites? Did Abdu Heba come to have his name morphed by the Habiru into Jebus or Jebusites?
Please click here and scroll down for examples of the Sumerian logogram edin/eden being used _in_lieu_of_ Akkadain seru or tseru in the Epic of Gilgamesh as transliterated by Professor Andrew George of London, England. Andrew George is a Professor of Babylonian at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, London, England. He is the author of: The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic, Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts. Oxford University Press. Published 2003. 1176 pages with drawings and photos.
Stories or poems about Gilgamesh composed in Sumerian exist from circa 2100 B.C. The Sumerian logogram edin/eden used in lieu of Akkadian seru exists in various Akkadian (Babylonian) recensions of the Epic of Gilgamesh from circa 1700 B.C. to Neo-Babylonian recensions of circa 630-539 B.C.
In 1881 Professor Friedrich Delitzsch shocked the scholarly world of biblical studies by announcing that Genesis' Eden was derived from the Sumerian word edin. This word in Sumerian has two meanings (1) "back," as in a person's back; (2) by analogy: "uncultivated wilderness land" because this land was seen as "backing" or "abutting" the cultivated land surrounding Sumerian cities (that is to say the edin was the equivalent of the Australian "Outback" or "Wilderness," or "the Wild," meaning the plains surrounding the Sumerian cities and their cultivated gardens or fields. Every Sumerian city had its god and a god's garden, which grew an assortment of crops intended to provide food for the god as well as man: dates from date palms, figs from fig trees, apples from apple trees, vegetables like onions, herbs, grain and barley for making bread and beer. The god's gardens were then, in the midst of the edin, "the wilderness." Scholars sometimes _substitute_ the Sumerian word edin with English nouns such as "plain," "desert," or "wilderness." In the scholarly literature edin is also rendered eden, so both spellings are accepted by professionals writing on the subject. [etc.]
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While the above map with its seasonal watering holes is where _I believe_ Enkidu and Shamhat's encounter occured in the wilderness of edin, I must stress again _it is only one of several other locations_ appearing in the Mesopotamian myths for the Garden of Eden's pre-biblical location. What I am saying here is that there does _not_ exist a Mesopotamian composition possessing _all_ of the motifs found in Genesis' Garden _in_ Eden account (as has been noted by numerous scholars over the past 100 years); the motifs are found in several compositions, and these compositions give different locations. So, my methodology is (1) to seek out and identify a motif associated with Genesis' garden in Eden in the various Mesopotamian compositions and (2) see if a location is provided in that composition which came to be "borrowed," "transformed" and "recast" in the Garden in Eden account. On the above map appear two Sumerian cities Eridu (Sumerian: Eridug) and Uruk (Sumerian: Unug), two more "pre-biblical locations" for the garden in edin or Garden in Eden. Note: on the above map Eridug/Eridu appears as Abu Shahrayn while Unug/Uruk appears as Erech. At Eridu man (Adapa) is warned by his god Ea (Sumerian Enki) "not to eat the bread of death" or "drink the water of death" to be offered him in heaven by the god Anu (Sumerian An). Adapa obeyed and refused to consume the proffered items: "the bread of life" and "water of life," thereby loosing a chance to obtain immortality for himself and mankind. The Hebrews have inverted this storyline: Because man disobeyed his god and ate, he is denied immortality! So, God's warning to Adam "not to eat" in the Garden of Eden is a recast of Ea's warning to Adapa in Eridu. That is to say Eridu is yet another pre-biblical prototype of Eden's Garden.
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Garden of Eden
Around the World
- Similar trees appear in other religions. In the closest, most relevant comparison, the iconic image of the tree guarded by the Serpent appears on Sumerian seals; it is the central feature of the Garden of the Hesperides in Greek mythology, where the guardian serpent receives the name Ladon. In Buddhism, the Buddha became enlightened under the Bodhi tree. While the biblical tree is usually interpreted as representing sensual pleasure, the Bodhi tree gave pure transcendent knowledge.[citation needed] In Vedic Hinduism, the Tree of Jiva and Atman is usually interpreted as a metaphor concerning the soul, mind, and body. In the Norse sagas, the ash tree Yggdrasil draws from the magic springwater of knowledge. To many who believe the Bible is filled with parables, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is actually a library or some other form of educational writings. [edit]
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| original ...a drawing after a cylinder seal found at Sumerian Nibru (Akkadian Nippur) of the Ur III period (circa 2150 B.C.) showing Inanna bestowing symbols of rulership to a king who pours out water (?) into a pot containing perhaps a seedling plant, a date palm (?) with two clusters of dates. Two gods with horned helmets observe the coronation. To the viewer's left is a tall Cedar tree (?). According to one myth Inanna accompanied by her brother Utu the sun-god descends to the earth from heaven to "acquire knowledge" by eating of various herbs and trees. One of the trees she eats of is stated to be a cedar. Cedar nuts are consumed and used as a garnish in several Middle Eastern meals to this day. At Nibru/Nippur archaeologists found clay tablets which revealed one of Inanna's Sumerian epithets was nin-edin "the lady of edin" and Inanna-edin "Inanna of edin." Her husband was Dumuzi the shepherd who bore the Sumerian epithet mulu-edin "the lord of edin." The "lady of edin" ate of a cedar tree to acquire sexual knowledge so she could perform her conjugal duties with her new husband, "the lord of edin." Both Inanna and Dumuzi also bore another Sumerian epithet ama-ushumgal-an-na "the mother is a great serpent-dragon of heaven." Mesopotamian myths reveal that the gods created kings to oversee mankind's provisioning of the gods with the basics of life: food, shelter and clothing. Perhaps the king's watering of the seedling datepalm (a fruit tree) recalls the myths that stated man was created to relieve the Igigi gods of creating and clearing irrigation canals and ditches to provide water for the god's city-gardens where grew assorted fruit trees (date palms, apple and fig trees, etc.). That is to say one of man's duties was to care for the city-gardens of the gods and offer this produce to the gods in the temples. The cultic act of "watering" a seedling fruit tree then recalls man's duty to provide water for the gods' gardens via the maintenace of irrigation canals and ditches, a job formerly held by the Igigi gods. Inanna possessed a city-garden at Uruk and there she planted a Huluppu tree intending to make a throne of it after it had matured. [etc.] |
Genetic Engineering
- "Genetic engineering. From various ancient texts we read of the creation of mankind and "virgins" giving birth to god-kings and prophets. As our own biotechnology evolves what were unfathomable mysteries for our forefathers are now beginning to make sense."
- Garden of Eden
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Genetic Engineering
Control Groups
- special strains of people (Jewish)
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Gilgamesh
- The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Ancient Mesopotamia and is among the earliest known works of literary fiction. Scholars surmise that a series of Sumerian legends and poems about the mythological hero-king Gilgamesh, who might have been a real ruler in the late Early Dynastic II period (ca. 27th century BC)[1], were gathered into a longer Akkadian poem long afterward, with the most complete version existing today preserved on twelve clay tablets in the library collection of the 7th century BC Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. It was originally titled He who Saw the Deep (Sha naqba īmuru) or Surpassing All Other Kings (Shūtur eli sharrī).
- Gilgamesh sets out to avoid Enkidu's fate and makes a perilous journey to visit Utnapishtim and his wife, the only humans to have survived the Great Flood who were granted immortality by the gods, in the hope that he too can attain immortality. Along the way, Gilgamesh passes the two mountains from where the sun rises, which are guarded by two scorpion-beings. They allow him to proceed and he travels through the dark where the sun travels every night. Just before the sun is about to catch up with him, he reaches the end. The land at the end of the tunnel is a wonderland full of trees with leaves of jewels.
- Gilgamesh meets the alewife Siduri and tells her the purpose of his journey. Siduri attempts to dissuade him from his quest but sends him to Urshanabi the ferryman to help him cross the sea to Utnapishtim. Urshanabi is in the company of some stone-giants. Gilgamesh considers them hostile and kills them. When he tells Urshanabi his story and asks for help, he is told that he just killed the only creatures able to cross the Waters of Death. The waters of death are not to be touched, so Urshanabi commands him to cut 300 trees and fashion them into oars so that they can cross the waters by picking a new oar each time. Finally they reach the island of Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim sees that there is someone else in the boat, and asks Gilgamesh who he is. Gilgamesh tells him his story and asks for help, but Utnapishtim reprimands him because fighting the fate of humans is futile and ruins the joy in life.
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Contents
* 1 History
* 2 Standard version
o 2.1 Content of the tablets
* 3 Old-Babylonian version
* 4 Sumerian version
* 5 Influence on later epic literature
* 6 See also
* 7 Notes
* 8 Bibliography
Fertile Crescent
myth series
Mark of the Palm
Mesopotamian
Levantine
Arabian
Mesopotamia
Primordial beings
7 gods who command
The great gods
Spirits and monsters
Tales from Babylon
Demigods and Heroes
Adapa, Enkidu
Enmerkar, Geshtinanna
Gilgamesh, Lugalbanda
Shamhat, Siduri
Tammuz, Utnapishtim
LINK TO:
The Project Gutenberg eBook, An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic, by Anonymous, Edited by Morris Jastrow, Translated by Albert T. Clay
Gilgamesh
War Comes to the "Landing Place"
The name of an ancient site – Ba’albek in Lebanon – has now been mentioned in dispatches by war correspondents covering the latest flareup in the Middle East. Israeli planes have been dropping bombs there on training and supply encampments of Hezbollah terrorists, in a tit-for-tat for the latter’s missile attacks on Israel. Some of the dispatches refer to the town’s “Roman ruins” - remains of temples that Roman emperors erected in honor of Rome’s gods; but little, if any, mention is made of the place’s earlier and much more significant archaeological remains.
I and those who have been with me to the place several years ago can attest that the “Roman ruins” are indeed imposing remains of three magnificent temples, including the largest temple to Jupiter anywhere in the Roman empire, Rome itself included - as an artist’s reconstruction shows (Fig. 1). But the Romans came there because the place had been revered earlier by the Greeks. Pompey, Rome’s conquering general, offered there sacrifices in 60 B.C. imitating Alexander the Great who paid there homage to Zeus centuries earlier. The Greeks came because the place was deemed a unique sacred site by the Phoenicians and the Babylonians before them; and before all those generals and emperors and kings, Gilgamesh, king of Uruk in ancient Sumer, went there circa 2900 B.C. to obtain immortality from the gods.
The “Landing Place”
Having been the son of the goddess Ninsun and the high priest of Uruk, Gilgamesh was considered not just a demigod but “two thirds divine.” This, he asserted, entitled him to avoid the death of a mortal. Yes, his mother told him - but to attain our longevity you have to go to our planet, Nibiru (where one year equals 3,600 Earth-years). So Gilgamesh journeyed from Sumer (now southern Iraq) to ‘The Landing Place” in the cedar mountains where the rocketships of the gods were lofted.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, a text found inscribed on clay tablets, actually describes how Gilgamesh witnessed a rocketship being launched from the Landing Place. A later Phoenician coin depicted such a rocket standing on a launching pad (Fig. 2).
Glossary
- Language translation in bible and historical accounts (shem: go up)
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Gods
Care and Feeding of Gods
- 1.Apparently some of the gods were frightful to look at, and took great care to not be seen by humans, except possibly by the highest priests. 2.The feeding of large numbers of AAs by the "sacrifice" of animals, and sometimes humans.
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Gods
Family Trees
- Due to the size of many family trees please click on the thumbnail of your choosing to see the entire tree. More trees will be added as time permits. Family trees will open in a separate window so that you may close or print when done, and return to the main website. All graphics on this page were created by Nikki Burke for this website from written sources.
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Gods
Battles between
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Greek Gods/Myths
Important Objects
- Aphrodite's Magic Girdle: This girdle was popular for its ability to arouse desire and create a great hunger for love. This girdle was so "potent" that whomever she desired would fall in love with her. It is even sometimes said that Hera once wore the girdle to win back Zeus's affection.
- Apollo's Lyre: Apollo was often depicted carrying a lyre, the Greek musical instrument with seven strings. Hermes, who invented this musical instrument, gave the lyre to Apollo. Apollo became a master in playing the lyre and he also taught mortals how to play it.
- Ares' Ancile: The Ancile was a large Bronze Age "figure 8" shield. On the shield was a special form of the sign for Mars, an apple surmounted by a spread-winged Victory. It was said to have fallen from heaven and was seen as a symbol of great reverence and luck.
- Asclepius' Caduceus: The caduceus of Asclepius with the coiled serpent is the traditional symbol of medicine. Today the caduceus (twin snakes around a staff with two wings at the top) has also been used to represent overall medicine.
- Athena's Aegis: The Aegis was a snake-fringed shield/armor that had the head of a gorgon (Medusa) in the center. It was said that the wearer of this Aegis would be invincible.
- Hade's Helmet: Hades helmet was a magical one given to him by the cyclopes, that would make the wearer invisible. This helmet was lent to many gods and men, but perhaps the most famous feat was the slaying of the gorgon Medusa by Perseus.
- Zeus' Thunderbolts: The Thunderbolt was the mighty power Zeus weilded from Mount Olympus. Only Zeus was able to possess these and those who sought to steal them suffered terrible fates. The bolts were created for him by the mighty cyclopes as a gift for setting them free.
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Hopi Prophecy
- The end of all Hopi ceremonialism will come when a "Kachina" removes his mask during a dance in the plaza before uninitiated children [the general public]. For a while there will be no more ceremonies, no more faith. Then Oraibi will be rejuvenated with its faith and ceremonies, marking the start of a new cycle of Hopi life.
- World War III will be started by those peoples who first revealed the light (the divine wisdom or intelligence) in the other old countries (India, China, Islamic Nations, Africa.)
- The United States will be destroyed, land and people, by atomic bombs and radioactivity. Only the Hopis and their homeland will be preserved as an oasis to which refugees will flee. Bomb shelters are a fallacy. "It is only materialistic people who seek to make shelters. Those who are at peace in their hearts already are in the great shelter of life. There is no shelter for evil. Those who take no part in the making of world division by ideology are ready to resume life in another world, be they Black, White, Red, or Yellow race. They are all one, brothers."
- The war will be "a spiritual conflict with material matters. Material matters will be destroyed by spiritual beings who will remain to create one world and one nation under one power, that of the Creator."
- That time is not far off. It will come when the Saquasohuh (Blue Star) Kachina dances in the plaza and removes his mask. He represents a blue star, far off and yet invisible, which will make its appearance soon. The time is foretold by a song sung during the Wuwuchim ceremony. It was sung in 1914 just before World War I, and again in 1940 before World War II, describing the disunity, corruption, and hatred contaminating Hopi rituals, which were followed by the same evils spreading over the world. This same song was sung in 1961 during the Wuwuchim ceremony.
- The Emergence to the future Fifth World has begun. It is being made by the humble people of little nations, tribes, and racial minorities. "You can read this in the earth itself. Plant forms from previous worlds are beginning to spring up as seeds [as described in SW-II, Effects and Coming Events # 1]. This could start a new study of botany if people were wise enough to read them. The same kinds of seeds are being planted in the sky as stars. The same kinds of seeds are being planted in our hearts. All these are the same, depending how you look at them. That is what makes the Emergence to the next, Fifth World.
- "These comprise the nine most important prophecies of the Hopis, connected with the creation of the nine worlds: the three previous worlds on which we lived, the present Fourth World, the three future worlds we have yet to experience, and the world of Taiowa, the Creator, and his nephew, Sotuknang."
- The Hopi and others who were saved from the Great Flood made a sacred covenant with the Great Spirit never to turn away from him. He made a set of sacred stone tablets, called Tiponi, into which he breathed his teachings, prophecies, and warnings.
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| Near Oraibi, Arizona, there is a petroglyph known as Prophecy Rock which symbolizes many Hopi prophecies. |
Date: December 31, 1993
Source: Book of The Hopi
By: Frank Waters
Source Material by: Oswald White Bear Fredericks
Copyright 1963, by Frank Waters
SBN 345-01717-X-125
Library of Congress Catalog No. 63-19606
Published by: Ballantine Books, Inc.
101 Fifth Ave, New York, N.Y. 10003 Paperback Edition: Page 408
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Source: American Prophecy
By: Mobius Rex
Copyright 1987
Rex Research
P.O. Box 1258 Berkeley, CA 94701
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