Archæology and the BibleBarton, George A. (George Aaron)
Religion
Archæology and the Bible
Barton, George A. (George Aaron)
Bible -- Antiquities; Egypt -- Antiquities; Middle East -- Antiquities
If Abel arose from the traditions of Etana and Enoch did also, and if the
names of Genesis 4 are derived from the list of Babylonian kings, then
Etana figures twice in the fourth chapter of Genesis. If Enoch is a
fragment of the name Enmeduranki, a possibility already recognized, it is
not difficult to understand how Etana came into the tradition twice.
=4. Comparison with the List of Berossos.=
Another list of names awaits comparison. Berossos, a Babylonian priest who
died about 260 B. C., compiled a list of kings who lived before the flood,
and attributed to them incredibly long reigns. His work has not survived,
but his list is quoted by two early Christian writers, Eusebius and
Syncellus, and Hommel[390] and Sayce[391] have claimed that his names are,
many of them, identical with the patriarchs of Genesis 5.
The list of Berossos is as follows:
Kings Length of reign
Alorus 36,000 years
Alaparos 10,800 "
Amēlon 46,800 "
Ammenon 43,200 "
Megalaros 64,800 "
Daonos or Daos 36,000 "
Euedorachos 64,800 "
Amempsinos 36,000 "
Otiartes 28,800 "
Xisouthros 64,800 "
--------------
Total 432,000 years.
It has long been recognized that Amēlon is the Semitic Babylonian word
_amelu_, “man.” It is a Babylonian synonym of Mutu-elu, the equivalent of
Enosh, and is also a translation of Enmenunna. Ammenon has also been
recognized as the Semitic Babylonian _ummanu_, “artisan.” It is a
translation in one word of the Sumerian Pilikam.
Daonos or Daos has, too, been seen to be the phonetic transliteration into
Greek letters of the Sumerian Dumu, the first part of the name Dumuzi.
Euedorachos has also been thought to be the Sumerian Enmeduranki, whom we
have recognized as another name for Etana. Four of the names of Berossos
are thus easily connected with names in the new list of kings.
The fifth one, Megalaros, might be a corruption either of Mutu-shalal or
of Mutu-ša-elu, and so go back ultimately either to Enmeirgan or to
Meskingashir. Xisouthros is clearly the same person as Ziugiddu. He had no
connection with this list of kings, but is, like Noah in Genesis 5,
attached to it on account of the flood. Hommel long ago saw that Otiartes
is the same as Ubara-tutu, who is said in the account of the deluge which
was found at Nineveh to have been the father of Utnapishtim, the hero of
the deluge.[392] Berossos has, accordingly, not only added the hero of the
deluge, but has displaced one of the names from the king list in order to
find a place for the father of Xisouthros.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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