The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and BabyloniaPinches, Theophilus G. (Theophilus Goldridge)
Religion
The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia
Pinches, Theophilus G. (Theophilus Goldridge)
Bible. Old Testament -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
“The temple of the Life of Heaven is destroyed—who, in the day of
its glory, has cut off its glory?
The everlasting temple, the building of Uriwa,
The everlasting temple, the building of Ê-kiš-nu-gala.
The city Uriwa is a house of darkness in the land—
Ê-kiš-nu-gala (and) Nannara.”
“Let heaven rest with earth, heaven enclosed with earth.
Father Nannar, lord of Uriwa,
To the great lady, the lady of Ê-kiš-nu-gala, give thou rest.
To heaven with earth, heaven and earth, (give thou rest).
To the heaven of Uraš, at _še-gu-nu_,
The god Enki, the goddess Ninki, the god Endu, the goddess Nindu,
The god En-da-u-ma, the goddess Nin-da-u-ma,
The god En-du-azaga, the goddess Nin-du-azaga,
The god En-u-tila, the god En-me-šarra,
The princess of the Life of Heaven, the lady of the mountain.”
“... he will restore the site of Ê-kiš-nu-gala.”(33)
Thus does the poet of ancient days, in a composition in the non-Semitic
idiom of his time, lament the misfortunes which had come over the temple
and city—how, whether by was by famine, or by some other mischance, we
know not. It serves to show, however, not only the poetical spirit which
animated the Akkadians at the time, but also the high esteem in which the
temple and the deities venerated therein were held, and the power
attributed to the Moon-god in the centre of his worship. The fact that Ur
(Mugheir) was an important place for the worship of the Moon-god has been
not seldom quoted in support of the identity of this city with Ur of the
Chaldees, because Haran, the city to which Abram migrated with his father
Terah, was also a centre of the worship of Sin. This, in itself, is not at
all improbable, the Jewish tradition being, that Terah was an
idolater.(34) That Terah should go 560 miles simply for this reason, when
he might have found a suitable settlement nearer, seems to be in the
highest degree unlikely, minor shrines of the Moon-god being, in all
probability, far from rare in Babylonia.(35) He simply sojourned there
because, in his journeyings, it suited him to stay there. If he were a
devotee of the Moon-god, he was in all probability the more pleased to
take up his abode there. But he may not have worshipped that divinity at
all, or if he did do so, may not have honoured him more than the Sun-god,
Anu, the god of the heavens, or the goddess Ištar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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