Sunday, 24 December 2017

BABYLON EPIC OF CREATION.

The Enuma Elish, also known as the Seven Tablets of Creation, is the Mesopotamian creation myth whose title is derived from the opening lines of the piece "When in the Height." All of the tablets containing the myth were found at Asshur, Kish, in the ruined Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, Sultantepe, and other excavated sites, date to 1100 BC. However, the tablets found are only copies of a much older version of the myth.
The Enuma Elis is the earliest written text about a civil war between the entities inhabiting the primeval world in which Marduk, a very young god, answered the call and was promised the position of head god if he would destroy the tyranny of Tiamat and her liuetenant (who was also her son and consort), Kingu. Marduk battles the tyrannical primordial chaos, in the form of a sea-serpent goddess Tiamat with her own evil champion, Kingu. Marduk defeats her and her son using an arsenal of super-weapons. After his victory Marduk is made the leader of the gods by acclamation. Marduk then claimed the Kingu's prized Tablets of Destiny and fashioned a new cosmic order that included humankind, out of Tiamat's body. Humans were created to bear the burdens of life so the gods could be at leisure. Marduk divides Tiamat's corpse into two portions, the upper half becoming the sky and the lower half, the earth, and then creates humanity from his blood and bone.
It has been hypothesized that this is a legend about the overthrow of the matriarchy or records of some cosmic catastrophe. Other scholars says that the myth was created to explain how Marduk came to a position of supreme power. The story became an important part of Babylonian culture and was re-enacted annually in lavish New Year festivities.
Marduk literally means "bull calf of the sun; solar calf,"although he was also a deity of fertility and storms. He was one of the sons of the chief god of the city of Eridu, Enki. The exact meaning of Enki's name is "Lord of the Earth." Enki was the god of water, crafts, intelligence, and creation.
Sometimes portrayed as double-headed, Marduk was later given the title Bel, or Lord, and was referred to simply as "Bel" in a manner similar to that of the Canaanite Baal (master/lord). When Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates Valley, Marduk rose to the head of the Babylonian pantheon, a position he fully acquired by the 2nd half of the 2nd millennium BC.  Marduk was thus the chief deity of the Babylonian Empire during the period of Israel exile in Babylon (6th-5th BC).
In the Scripture, in the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 51, God says: "I will punish Marduk, the god of Babylon, and make him vomit up everything he gobbled down. The nations will no longer bring him gifts, and Babylon's walls will crumble. Get out of Babylon, My people, and run for your lives, before I strike the city in My anger! Don't be afraid or lose hope ..." (44-45)

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