For David Rohl, YHWH has more in common with Enki than with Anu or Enlil, and the similarities between YHWH and Enki outweigh their differences. In his books Legend and The Lost Testament, which have been referred to often throughout this study, Rohl concludes that the god who was revealed to Moses was none other than Enki, who was known in the Akkadian language as Ea. YHWH is portrayed as a positive and caring god in the Hebrew Bible, and Enki/Ea is portrayed as equally benevolent in Sumerian myths, so for David Rohl this is where the connection exists between the Sumerians and the Hebrews. Rohl even believes that YHWH actually declared His identity as Enki/Ea to Moses in a straightforward manner at the incident of the burning bush: "Moses then said to God, 'Look, if I go to the Israelites and say to them, "The god of your ancestors has sent me to you," and they say to me, "What is his name?" what am I to tell them?' God said to Moses, 'I am who I am'." [Exodus 3:13-14]
Here is how David Rohl explains this curious dialogue between Moses and the Voice from the burning bush: "As we have learnt, Enki ('Lord of the Earth') was called Ea in Akkadian (East Semitic) that is to say in the Babylonian tradition. Scholars have determined that Ea was vocalized as 'eya'. So, when Moses stood before the burning bush and asked the name of the god of the mountain, did he really reply 'I am who I am' (Heb. Eyah asher eyah)? This puzzling phrase has long perplexed theologians but now there is a simple explanation. The voice of God simply replied 'Eyah asher Eyah' 'I am (the one) who is called Eyah' the name of Ea in its West Semitic (i.e. Hebrew) form. Scholars have simply failed to recognize that this is another of those characteristic puns in which the Old Testament abounds. 'I am (Eyah) he who is called (asher) Ea (Eyah)' is a classic biblical play on words. It also explains God's apparently nonsensical instruction: 'This is what you are to say to the Israelites, "I am has sent me to you."' God's words should really be translated as 'Eyah has sent me to you.'
'Eyah' or simply 'Ya' is the hypocoristic form of the name Yahweh found as an element of so many Old Testament names. So Enki/Ea, the god who created Man and then later warned Ziusudra/Utnapishtim of the impending destruction of mankind, is one and the same as the god of Moses." [4]
David Rohl is correct that the vocalization for the Hebrew phrase "I AM" sounds very similar, if not the same as, the East Semitic vocalization for the name "Ea," which is indeed the Akkadian name for the Sumerian god Enki. However, if YHWH had actually meant to name Himself as "I AM," which has been the orthodox understanding in Judaism from its inception, it is not nearly as perplexing and puzzling as Rohl tries to portray it. "I AM" is actually a very appropriate name for the God who claims to be the single eternally existent One, who refers to Himself in Revelation 1:8 as the One "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." Rohl's etymological argument for equating YHWH with Enki might sound good, but it is far from conclusive.
In equating YHWH with Enki David Rohl focuses almost completely on the perceived similarities and he minimizes or ignores the many profound differences that exist between the two. These differences, if examined thoroughly, make it highly unlikely that YHWH and Enki are the very same entity. In the first place, we must return again to the unique Hebrew conception of the identity of YHWH. This conception was based upon YHWH's two-fold role as both Creator and Ruler of the universe. In the many Sumerian myths that praise and glorify Enki, there are none in which Enki is said to be the original Creator of material reality, a claim made by YHWH at the very beginning in Genesis 1:1. Regarding the Ruling aspect of YHWH, within Sumerian myth this aspect is better represented by Enlil. It is true that at one point Enki does gain possession of the me in the myth Enki and the World Order, as explained in Part Five, but this authority is given to Enki only by the permission of Enlil, who retains ultimate power as the primary decision-maker within the council of the gods. The bottom line is that for the Sumerians Enki was neither the Creator nor the Supreme Ruler, while for the Hebrews YHWH was and is both.
There are many more aspects of Enki that directly contradict the Hebrew understanding of the identity of YHWH. According to Sumerian texts the practice of a hereditary kingship was first established at Eridu, which was the cult-center of Enki where the descendents of the biblical Cain became established. On the other hand, within the Israelite nation the custom of a hereditary kingship did not exist from its beginning with Abraham, through the Egyptian captivity and the Exodus, through the centuries of the Judges all the way up until the time of the prophet Samuel. It was at this point that the Israelites demanded that YHWH give them a king, to which YHWH at first refused before grudgingly allowing the institution of the monarchy (1 Samuel 8:7-22). In this respect YHWH and Enki are again proven different. For Enki a monarchy was essential and necessary to maintain his power and influence, but for YHWH a monarchy was viewed as undesirable and unnecessarily oppressive of His people.
Another major difference between YHWH and Enki comes from examining some of the religious practices associated with the two gods. When we examine the Sumerian conception of Enki we find that one of his primary characteristics was his association with magic and sorcery, with rituals allowing contact with the spirit world, and with divination of the future. When we examine YHWH and his relationship with Israel, and especially the Law or Torah that He gave to Israel, we find that these occult practices are completely forbidden: "There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you." (Deuteronomy 18:10-12) These occult practices were the foundation of Sumerian religion and they evolved to become the basis of initiatory rites and hierarchical priesthoods around the world, from Egypt to India, and from the Greeks and Romans to the Mayans and Aztecs of the New World. These religious systems and occult practices were all similar, so one has to wonder why the god worshiped by the Israelites demanded such a strict separation of his people from the rest of the world? Was YHWH keeping them from spiritual practices that were necessary for their own spiritual advancement, or was He simply protecting them from a spirit world that was deceiving everyone else with fleeting metaphysical experiences and false promises and expectations?
If we are correct to conclude that YHWH and Enki are actually separate entities, then it becomes more plausible to equate YHWH with the Sumerian god Enlil, who was the long-time adversary of Enki in the Sumerian accounts. This brings a whole new set of problems to the table, however, because of the negative and derogatory portrayal of Enlil throughout Sumerian myth. Enlil is portrayed as angry, vindictive, abusive and cruel, and he commits crimes including adultery, rape and genocide. YHWH is sometimes portrayed as angry and violent in the Hebrew Old Testament, but to the Hebrews YHWH's actions were always justified, no matter how cruel they appeared to be. For the Sumerians there was rarely any justification for the rash abuses of power that characterized the rule of Enlil.
In examining YHWH and Enki and their respective traditions one must also address the fact that they make conflicting claims. In the book of Genesis YHWH is credited with creating mankind, while in the majority of Sumerian texts Enki is portrayed as man's creator. Another case is the similar tradition of the Great Flood. The book of Genesis explains that YHWH brought the flood as a judgment upon human society that had become wicked through negative influences from fallen angels. In the Sumerian accounts it is Enlil who brings the flood to cull the human population that had become "too noisy." However, the book of Genesis tells a story of YHWH mercifully saving Noah and the last righteous family on earth from the impending destruction. Contrasting this account, in Sumerian myth it is Enki who saves Atrahasis and his family from the flood against the wishes of Enlil. These conflicting claims and accounts cannot both be true if Enki and YHWH are indeed separate entities. If YHWH is the spiritual source for the Hebrew tradition, and if Enki is the spiritual source for the Sumerian tradition, then we must face the reality that one of them is lying.
If YHWH in the Sumerian tradition is represented as Enlil, the adversary of Enki, then where can we expect to find Enki within the Hebrew tradition? Perhaps we need to examine the Biblical adversary of YHWH to find the answer. While Rohl equates YHWH with Enki, he nonetheless provides the following description of Enki that resembles this Biblical Adversary much closer than it resembles YHWH Himself: "It is clear from the numerous incidents in the myths associated with Enki that he is a clever, even cunning, deity; he is mischievous and non-conformist; in his aspect of the creator of humanity he is a fertility-god; he liaises with humans by whispering through reed walls so that he may circumvent the ban, placed on him by his fellow deities, which prevents direct communication with humans. One could look upon him as a bit of a wily prankster. He is sometimes shown with the legs of a goat complete with cloven hooves, whilst his upper body is clothed in the scales of a fish. Enki is also, as we have seen, very much the protector of his creation humankind and the provider of the life sustaining sweet water." [5]
Enki Unmasked Over the last one hundred and fifty years or so since the discovery and translation of the ancient Sumerian texts modern scholars have been drawn to Enki as the most interesting and enigmatic of all the Sumerian gods. Near the end of his career Samuel Noah Kramer, perhaps the most respected Sumerologist of the twentieth century, chose to focus on Enki in a book he published in 1989 entitled Myths of Enki, the Crafty God. Within this book the late Dr. Kramer examined the many different myths and traditions of Enki in the Sumerian and Akkadian texts and he makes a number of crucial observations regarding the role of Enki in the evolution of paganism after the fall of Sumerian civilization. Kramer is remembered within the academic world as a giant in his field, but within the world of popular culture, a world influenced by talk radio and the mass-market paperback, he remains relatively unknown.
Zecharia Sitchin is an author/scholar who is perhaps the exact opposite of Kramer. Sitchin cannot claim any academic achievements within the field of Sumerian studies, yet he has gained international popularity and acclaim as a reputed expert on ancient Sumerian texts since the appearance of his book The 12th Planet in 1976. The basic theory behind Sitchin's book, which has since been expanded to a six-volume series called "The Earth Chronicles," is that the gods of the Sumerian pantheon were actually extra-terrestrial visitors from an alleged planet "Nibiru," who arrived on earth 450,000 years ago in search of gold.
Sitchin's Jewish roots became apparent with the publication of Divine Encounters in 1995, in which he argued that YHWH of the Hebrew tradition is the Creator of the universe who also created the Sumerian pantheon of extraterrestrial "gods" including Anu, Enlil and Enki. Sitchin's primary affections, however, are reserved for the god Enki. Just like David Rohl and Samuel Noah Kramer, Sitchin is taken in by the positive characterizations of Enki that are found throughout Sumerian texts. Sitchin's latest work The Lost Book of Enki focuses on Enki and claims to be "the autobiographical memoirs and insightful prophecies of an extraterrestrial god." [6]
While Sitchin argues in Divine Encounters that YHWH is actually the Creator of the "extra-terrestrial visitors" Anu, Enlil and Enki, he does concede that there are many similarities between YHWH and Enlil, much more than exist between YHWH and Enki. Regarding the YHWH-Enki relationship Sitchin puts forth the following tentative hypothesis in The 12th Planet (1976): "The possibility that the biblical antagonists-the Deity and the Serpent-stood for Enlil and Enki seems to us entirely plausible."[7] Sitchin elaborates upon this theory in his later book Genesis Revisited (1990): "In the biblical tale of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the antagonist of the Lord God who had caused them to acquire "knowing" (the ability to procreate) was the Serpent, Nahash in Hebrew... in the original Sumerian version the "serpent" was Enki. His emblem was entwined serpents; it was the symbol of his "cult center" Eridu (a), of his African domains in general (b), and of the pyramids in particular (c); and it appeared on Sumerian illustrations on cylinder seals of the events described in the Bible." [8]
The idea that the Serpent of the Garden of Eden, identified as Satan in the Judeo-Christian tradition, is in fact a representation of the Sumerian god Enki seems to be hinted at by Professor Kramer himself by the very title of his book Myths of Enki, the Crafty God, which is a characterization found in Genesis 3:1, "Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD GOD had made..."
Since the early 1980s Sitchin's radical theories of extra-terrestrial "gods," (based on a face-value acceptance of Sumerian myth as legitimate history and often utilizing the conservative scholarship of Kramer), have opened up a whole new genre of alternative research involving extraterrestrial interference, political conspiracy and New Age spirituality. This new genre is predominantly skeptical of, and antagonistic towards, the Judeo-Christian tradition, and usually promotes the forgotten "wisdom" of paganism and the Ancient Mysteries as the key to mankind's spiritual advancement. From this perspective the Serpent of the Garden of Eden is viewed as an Illuminator and Liberator of mankind and Lucifer/Satan becomes a positive figure repeatedly identified with the Sumerian god Enki.
Laurence Gardner is a well-known member of this school of alternative research, and he combines many of Sitchin's theories with some of the anti-Christian conspiratorial ideas found in the best-selling book Holy Blood, Holy Grail (1983). His credentials are impressive: Laurence Gardner is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and a Professional Member of the Institute of Nanotechnology. Distinguished as the Chevalier de St. Germain, he is a constitutional historian, a Knight Templar of St Anthony, and is Presidential Attache to the European Council of Princes. Based in England, he is author of The Times and Sunday Times bestseller, Bloodline of the Holy Grail. This was serialized nationally in the Daily Mail and gained Laurence a UK Author of the Year award in 1997." [9]
Gardner approaches the subject of Enlil and Enki in his follow-up book Genesis of the Grail Kings (1999), and for him the identity of YHWH/Jehovah is very obvious: "The Jehovah of the Jews (El Elyon of the Canaanites) was, therefore, synonymous with Enlil of the Anunnaki, son of the great Anu."[10] Gardner then goes on to identify Enki: "The serpent who conversed at length with Eve was clearly not a lowly, dumb creature, but a guardian of the sacred knowledge... It is further evident from the Mesopotamian serpent illustration that it has a direct Enki association, since Enki (Ea) was traditionally depicted as the Serpent-Lord of the Euphrates. Just as the serpent was the giver of wisdom, so Enki was constantly referred to as Enki the Wise..." [11]
For Gardner the "Grail Kings" are the true kings who have the divine right to rule over mankind. He traces the genealogy of this illuminated elite back to Cain, the first son of Eve, and Gardner resurrects the ancient Talmudic legend that Cain's true father was Samael the serpent, identified by Gardner as Enki. He writes, "In terms of sovereign genealogy, the line of Ham and Nimrod (in descent from Cain, Lamech and Tubal-cain) held the true heritage of Grail kingship, while the Sethian line through Noah and Shem were of lesser standing..." [12] According to Gardner, Ham was in fact the first-born son of Tubal-Cain, and not the son of Noah as stated in Genesis. With this step Gardner is able secure a line of human descent directly to Enki himself, even through the catastrophe of the Great Flood.
In commenting on the Judeo-Christian concept of Satan/Lucifer as the great Adversary of God and man, Gardner claims that this is a spurious theological invention created to help intimidate and subjugate early Christians under the domination of the Roman Church. For Gardner, the serpent-god Enki was mankind's original creator, our most important teacher, our protector against the animosity of Enlil/YHWH, and essentially "a true champion of mankind." [13]
Mark Amaru Pinkham is a successful author who also alleges that mankind's true creator is Lucifer, a name which he says is synonymous with Enki of the Sumerians. Pinkham's ideas are explained in his book The Return of the Serpents of Wisdom (1997), while in another book, The Truth Behind the Christ Myth (2002), he explains that Jesus Christ was simply one of a series of manifestations of this divine figure. Pinkham has also written on the connection between the true "christ" and the medieval Knights Templar, and he is the founder of an organization called The International Order of Gnostic Templars.
William Henry is another name associated with Sitchin's "extra-terrestrial origins" theory. Henry refers to himself as an "investigative mythologist," he has published close to a dozen books, and he can be heard often on late-night radio on shows such as Coast-to-Coast AM that discuss alternative and esoteric issues. In one of his online articles Henry explains how the conflict between Enki/Ea and Enlil continues to the present day: "E.A. and his priests, seek to uplift humanity to the level of the gods through global education and revelation of all sacred secrets. Enlil's priests seek to keep humanity at the level of slaves and sex objects, the property of a police state cryptocracy." [14]
Philip Gardiner and Gary Osborn are two British-based writers who, together and separately, have written a number of books covering these same themes. The title of their most recent collaboration is enough to explain their perspective: The Serpent Grail: The Truth Behind the Holy Grail, the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life (2005).
Alan Alford is another British writer who takes the Sumerian myths at face-value. He published Gods of the New Millennium in 1997, and has followed it up with several more books, turning his focus recently towards Egypt. In an article that appeared in New Dawn magazine Alford refers to Enki as "the Serpent God of the Garden of Eden."[15] Alford greatly admires Enki, whose Mesopotamian cult center was Eridu, which is reflected in the address of Alford's website at www.eridu.co.uk, and in the name of his publishing house: Eridu Books.
Dagobert's Revenge is a magazine that was started in 1996 by editor and publisher Tracy Twyman. Originally it focused on themes such as the Holy Grail, the Merovingian Dynasty and the Knights Templar, but it quickly broadened to include many more alternative and esoteric subjects. In 2004 Twyman published her book The Merovingian Mythos and the Mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau. In keeping with the trend Twyman credits Enki as being mankind's extra-terrestrial creator, and her writing is more blunt as she unashamedly refers to Enki as "Satan" throughout her book, with Jehovah/YHWH taking the familiar role of the "villainous" Enlil.
Since 1994 Atlantis Rising magazine has been another repository for scholarship and research dealing with mankind's ET origins and other related subjects. In Spring of 2005 editor J. Douglas Kenyon published Forbidden History: Prehistoric Technologies, Extraterrestrial Intervention, and the Suppressed Origins of Civilization. The book is a collection of forty-two articles that have appeared in Atlantis Rising over the years, written by seventeen different authors. As a collection it represents the New Age consensus that the appearance of modern homo sapien sapiens is the result of extra-terrestrial intervention. This understanding includes the notion that ancient Sumerian texts are the most literal and trustworthy accounts of human origins, and that the primary character in this episode was Enki, known in the book of Genesis as the Serpent of the Garden of Eden, whose benevolent character has since been slandered by the Judeo-Christian establishment.
The glorification of Enki at the expense of the Judeo-Christian Creator has also been embraced by those who consider themselves part of the belief system that calls itself "Satanism." The website www.exposingchristianity.com is edited and promoted by Satanists and it includes the following quote: "[Christianity] is based upon stolen material that has been twisted, warped and distorted to manipulate, confuse and incite fear into humanity. CONTROL. It has taken the ORIGINAL GOD AND CREATOR OF HUMANITY, EA/ENKI aka SATAN/LUCIFER and turned him into an assumed enemy of humanity. It has been used to blaspheme, ridicule and malign the Old Gods, create estrangement and enmity from legitimate deities of which it replaced with the false god "Yaweh/Jehova." [16]
A Satanist website called "Joy of Satan" also equates Enki with Satan, which appears to be a trend within Satanism that is steadily gaining ground: "The Christian Churches have dictated to a populace cut off from all ancient knowledge and the Original Gods, namely our Creator God, Ea, also known as Enki, Lord of the Earth and "Satan," what "Satanism" is supposed to be all about." [17]
One of the most interesting and compelling books written on the subject of alleged extra-terrestrial control and manipulation of mankind is The Gods of Eden (1989) by William Bramley. The majority of researchers in this field view the ancient gods as benevolent caretakers of humanity, but Bramley is one of the few who argues against this consensus. The back cover of his book explains Bramley's unique perspective: They came to earth millions of years ago to spread the poison of hatred, war and catastrophe... They are still with us... Human history is a seemingly endless succession of bloody conflicts and devastating turmoil. Yet, inexplicably, in the light of astonishing intellectual and technological advancement, Man's progress has been halted in one crucial area: he still indulges the primitive beast within and makes war upon his neighbors.
As a result of seven years of intensive research, William Bramley has uncovered the sinister thread that links humanity's darkest events-from the wars of the ancient pharaohs to the assassination of JFK. In this remarkable, shocking and absolutely compelling work, Bramley presents disturbing evidence of an alien presence on Earth-extraterrestrial visitors who have conspired to dominate Humankind through violence and chaos since the beginning of time...a conspiracy which continues to this very day.
Bramley points to Sumerian texts that explain that humans were created by these "gods" to be slaves to the gods. Here is his basic thesis: Human beings appear to be a slave race languishing on an isolated planet in a small galaxy. As such, the human race was once a source of labor for an extraterrestrial civilization and still remains a possession today. To keep control over its possession and to maintain Earth as something of a prison, that other civilization has bred never-ending conflict between human beings, has promoted human spiritual decay, and has erected on Earth conditions of unremitting physical hardship. This situation has existed for thousands of years and it continues today. [18]
Bramley refers to these alleged ET controllers as the "Custodians," and he views them as the ultimate source of the most deep-seated and perplexing evils that affect humanity. However, like all the rest, Bramley identifies Enki as a uniquely positive figure and as a "renegade" Custodian who has always tried to help mankind. This, despite the fact that Sumerian records state that Enki is the god who created mankind to serve as slaves in the first place. In fact, in the Sumerian language the word for "worship," avod, is the very same word used for "work." [19]
Sitchin and his immediate followers all view the ancient gods, as well as the modern UFO phenomenon, as visitations of physical entities whose origin is from other planets or galaxies. Dr. Jacques Vallee is a French-born scientist who has studied UFOs all his life and is one of the most highly-respected members of the ufological community. Vallee understands the "extra-terrestrial" premise that underlies so much of UFO research, but he disagrees with it completely. For Vallee, the entities that so many researchers refer to as "extra-terrestrial" are more properly described as "extra-dimensional." In other words, they are not purely physical beings, but are better understood as primarily spiritual. In his book Messengers of Deception (1979), Vallee wrote that "what we see in effect here is not an alien invasion. It is a control system which acts on humans and uses humans." In his book Dimensions (1989) Vallee elaborates on this hypothesis: I propose that there is a spiritual control system for human consciousness and that paranormal phenomena like UFOs are one of its manifestations. I cannot tell whether this control is natural and spontaneous; whether it is explainable in terms of genetics, of social psychology, or of ordinary phenomena-or if it is artificial in nature, under the power of some superhuman will. It may be entirely determined by laws that we have not yet discovered. [20]
If indeed the ancient "gods" are manipulating and controlling human consciousness from other dimensions then we can expect Enki to be playing a major role in this ongoing program. But is his role positive, as the Sumerians and modern New Age authors assure us, or is he the Great Deceiver and the greatest enemy of both God and man, as Judeo-Christian traditions have warned from the very beginning?
History is Written by the Victor The battle between Enki and Enlil is never completely resolved within Sumerian myth itself, but texts such as Enki and the World Order and Inanna and Enki give the impression that Enki gains the upper hand, at least as far as authority over mankind is concerned. After all it was in Eridu, Enki's cult headquarters, where the office of the hereditary kingship was established, and it was Enki who eventually gained possession of the me (see Part Five) that were associated with the organization of human civilization.
Modern researchers who look to Sumerian texts as unbiased and authentic accounts of mankind's origins need to re-evaluate their positions and take this development into consideration. The old adage that "history is written by the victors" has been proven true time and again, and if Enki was indeed the victor in his clash with Enlil, then perhaps that explains why he is portrayed in such positive terms by the societies that he came to dominate. By the same token this also explains why Enlil is portrayed in such negative terms.
This brings us to the development of the art of writing itself. According to the Sumerian myth Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta the very first person to originate "the writing of messages on clay" was none other than Enmerkar, whom we have identified as Osiris and Nimrod. Enmerkar was a devoted servant of Enki and he was also involved in renovating the great temple of Enki at Eridu. David Rohl places the end of Enmerkar's reign at circa 2850 BC.
Modern scholars mark the Proto-Literate Period, when primitive pictographic writing emerged and evolved, at approximately 3500-2800 BC. Near the end of this period the pictographic system was replaced by a syllabic system and the thousands of signs in the Sumerian vocabulary were reduced to a few hundred, which made writing much more practical and functional.[21] Under a syllabic system the art of writing, which had previously been useful only for bureaucratic or financial purposes, suddenly produced literature, and this new invention quickly became an important tool for the purposes of propaganda. Samuel Noah Kramer explains how Enki was viewed by the Sumerians as the protector of this important innovation: "Enki is, in addition to the lord of magic and the great problem-solver of the gods, the god of craftsmen, including what we would now call artists and writers... Enki was, perhaps more than any other ancient deity, essentially identified with the spoken and the written word." [22]
The eminent Assyriologist Georges Roux also points out the historic connection between Enki and the art of writing: "Enki-Ea, the tutelary god of Eridu, was above all the god of intelligence and wisdom, the 'broad-eared one who knows all that has a name.' He stood as the initiator and protector of arts and crafts, of science and literature, the patron of the magicians, the Great Teacher and the Great Superintendent who, having organized the world created by Enlil, assured its proper functioning." [23]
The recently-published Historical Atlas of Ancient Mesopotamia notes Enki's association with writing as well: "According to the Sumerian epic poem of Inanna and Enki, the 'one hundred basic elements of civilization' were transferred from Eridu, City of the First Kings, to Uruk. Among these basic elements was writing, considered to be a divine decree from the deities and under the patronage of Enki, God of Wisdom. From its inception, writing was therefore considered a gift of the gods and carried with it both power and knowledge." [24]
It is certainly true that control over the craft of writing meant power and knowledge. From the very beginning, when individual kingdoms first appeared, politics and religion were closely connected and there was no separation of Church and State. The Priesthood served the State, and the State was obliged to follow the decrees of the Priesthood, which were understood to come directly from the spirit-world of the gods. The chosen few who were taught the skills of reading and writing were privileged members of a scribal class that was itself a part of the official Priesthood. Consider the following brief biographies of historians from the ancient world, as proof of the connection between what we view as "history" and the pagan system of worship erected for mankind by the "gods."
Berossus of Babylon was a highly educated man who lived from approximately 340-260 BC. He personally witnessed Alexander the Great's conquest of Persia and much of Asia, and after the Greeks took over Babylon Berossus was quickly assimilated into the new regime. Berossus is known to us through his Babyloniaca, or History of Babylon, which was a three-volume study written in Greek that used ancient texts such as the Enuma Elish and Atrahasis to give the Babylonian perspective on the history of the world. According to scholars this work was either commissioned by the Seleucid king Antiochus I, or by the High Priests of Marduk to justify the worship of Marduk throughout Babylon under the Seleucid Greeks. According to Berossus, Marduk was the very same god as the Greek high god Zeus and the Egyptian god Ammon. Berossus was himself a priest of Marduk, and his Akkadian name was most likely Bel-re-ushu, which means "Bel is my shepherd," with Bel being simply another name for Marduk.
Manetho of Heliopolis was a historian who lived from approximately 300-220 BC. Like Berossus, Manetho lived in the aftermath of Alexander's conquests. Manetho's greatest work was his three-volume Aegyptiaca, or History of Egypt, also written in Greek. Scholars believe that Manetho's work was inspired by the Histories of Herodotus, and was meant to correct many of Herodotus' errors and give the Egyptian perspective on world history. During his day Manetho's greatest contribution was in bringing unity to the Greek and Egyptian people through the creation of the new cult of Sarapis. According to Plutarch this project was initiated by a dream received by Ptolemy I, after which Manetho the Chief Priest of Ra at Heliopolis was introduced to Timotheus the Eumolpid, the Greek High Priest of the Eleusinian Mysteries, to work out the doctrines and rituals of the new cult.[25] Most scholars view Sarapis as a combination of the Greek god Zeus and the Egyptian god Osiris, who was also worshiped as Apis the bull of the Nile. Thus, Osir-Apis, or Sarapis. On the other hand, Samuel Noah Kramer is inclined to see the cult of Sarapis as a return to the direct worship of Enki: "In his survey of Akkadian epithets of the gods, Knut Tallqvist gives many citations for the title sar apsi, king of the Abzu (Apsu). Only one god is called sar apsi, Ea. E. Douglas van Buren was intrigued by the possibility that the epithet of Ea gave rise to the popular Hellenistic god Sarapis. The story of the invention or discovery of Sarapis is reasonably well attested in antiquity, but the origins of the god remain obscure. Tacitus was told by Egyptian priests that Ptolemy I received a dream of "a young man from heaven" who told Ptolemy to send for the statue of Sarapis. At Sinope the statue was found, worshiped as Jupiter Dis along with Proserpina. Priests of Apollo at Delphi advised the Egyptians to take the statue of Sarapis to Alexandria, but to leave his consort behind. The statue arrived in Alexandria and a shrine was built for it, where the Egyptians assimilated Sarapis to Osiris. The god caused a good bit of etymological and historical speculation in the ancient world, but the explanations of Sarapis are not very convincing. Van Buren's suggestion that Serapis is Ea is based on knowledge that Sinope had been an Assyrian seaboard colony... Sarapis was widely popular as one of the great savior gods, a miracle-worker and healer. Zeus Sarapis was a benefactor of humanity, especially those like sailors who made their way by water." [26]
If the tale of Ptolemy's dream is true, and a statue known to depict "Sarapis" was found in Sinope in Pontus on the Black Sea coast, a colony with Akkadian connections, then it is virtually a foregone conclusion that the statue was in fact a statue of Ea/Enki, the only Akkadian god ever known as Sar Apsi, the Lord of the Abyss. Supporting this conclusion is the fact that "Sarapis" was especially favored by Alexander the Great: "The earliest mention of Sarapis is in the authentic death scene of Alexander, from the royal diaries (Arrian, Anabasis, VII. 26). Here Sarapis has a temple at Babylon and is of such importance that he alone is named as being consulted on behalf of the dying king." [27]
The "Sarapis" honored by Alexander is of course the Sar Apsi known as Ea/Enki, a point on which all scholars agree. It should then be obvious that the cult of "Sarapis" created by one of Alexander's greatest generals was a cult to this very same god. What may have happened is that after Sarapis became installed in Alexandria perhaps the god's identification with Osiris/Apis was something that the leaders of the cult allowed in order to ensure its popularity within Egypt, while his true identity remained known to the inner circle of initiates.
During the Hellenistic and Roman periods Alexandria was understood to be the capital of the world. It was the most populous city in the world, and the center of learning and religion. Many gods were worshiped in Alexandria, but Sarapis stood head and shoulders above them all. According to Franz Cumont, by about 30 BC there were forty-two Serapeums, or Temples to Sarapis, in Egypt alone.[28] There was also a major Serapeum in the city of Pergamum (in modern Turkey), a city known also for its center of healing dedicated to the god Asclepius [29], and for its massive altar to Zeus, which was brought to Berlin just prior to the rise of Hitler. In Revelation 2:13 Jesus Christ declares that "Satan's Throne" is located in Pergamum, "where Satan dwells."
Plutarch of Delphi was another high initiate of the pagan Mysteries who left a legacy as a historian. He lived from 46-127 AD, and was a High Priest of Apollo based at the famous Oracle of Delphi. Plutarch's most famous work is Parallel Lives, a series of biographies featuring pairs of famous Greeks and Romans. During his life Plutarch was a very rich and influential man also successful as a politician. His prestige allowed him to travel to Egypt where he was initiated into many of the Egyptian Mysteries, after which he wrote the first ever prose account of the myth of Osiris in Isis and Osiris. Throughout his many writings on spiritual matters Plutarch often refers to "secrets" that he is not allowed to reveal on account of his oaths of initiation.
Philo of Byblos lived from 64-141 AD and was an important writer who did for the Phoenicians what Berossus and Manetho did for the Babylonians and Egyptians. His primary work is Phoenician History, and what we know of this Greek text comes primarily from quotes found in the writings of Eusebius and Porphyry. According to Philo, the basis of the History were Phoenician texts attributed to a priest of Baal named Sanchuniathon, who lived prior to the Trojan War, probably within the thirteenth century BC. Philo writes that Sanchuniathon began his quest for knowledge through his devotion to the god Tauthus, who "was the first who thought of the invention of letters, and began the writing of records." Philo explains that Tauthus is known as Thoth to the Egyptians and as Hermes Trismegistus to the Greeks.
According to this History [30], the universe was created through a sequence of events that are remarkably similar to the modern theory of evolution. Out of chaos, water, wind and mud, eventually early man developed, and after several generations the earliest gods were born. The first divine conflict was between Uranus and his son Kronos, and after Kronos was victorious, with crucial help from his secretary Tauthus, he founded the first city which was, as can be expected from a Phoenician scribe, the Phoenician city of Byblos. After the eventual death of Uranus at the hands of Kronos (in the thirty-second year of Kronos' reign), the text records: "This, then, is the story of Kronos, and such are the glories of the mode of life, so vaunted among the Greeks, of men in the days of Kronos, whom they also affirm to have been the first and 'golden race of articulate speaking men,' that blessed happiness of the olden time!"
The pagan custom of human sacrifice, a common occurrence during the "blessed happiness" of the "Golden Age," is also traced back to Kronos: "It was a custom of the ancients in great crises of danger for the rulers of a city or nation, in order to avert the common ruin, to give up the most beloved of their children for sacrifice as a ransom to the avenging daemons; and those who were thus given up were sacrificed with mystic rites. Kronos then, whom the Phoenicians call Elus, who was king of the country and subsequently, after his decease, was deified as the star Saturn, had by a nymph of the country named Anobret an only begotten son, whom they on this account called ledud, the only begotten being still so called among the Phoenicians; and when very great dangers from war had beset the country, he arrayed his son in royal apparel, and prepared an altar, and sacrificed him."
The identity of Kronos is revealed through the work of Berossus, who was intimately familiar with the Sumerian and Akkadian myths and legends. In his Greek interpretation of various parts of the Enuma Elish, "Enki" is simply translated by Berossus as "Kronos," seemingly without any need for an explanation. Philo concludes that this deity is now deceased, but unfortunately for us the facts show that these rumors are greatly exaggerated.
In ancient times writing was a very exclusive, valuable and highly protected skill. From the time of its invention it existed for hundreds of years as the property of the Priesthood and the State, which were themselves virtually inseparable. As we have seen, religion in the world prior to the appearance of Christianity was similar in virtually every key aspect from culture to culture. Each was governed by a hereditary monarchy and led by a hierarchy of initiated priests who communicated with the gods in ways very similar to the shamanism practiced within Eastern religions and indigenous cultures today. Each of these ancient cultures viewed the gods in a pantheistic framework, with the pantheon itself being led by a high god who exercised authority over heaven and earth. In early antiquity this high god was known as Kronos or Enki, who was represented by the planet Saturn. In later antiquity this leader of the gods was viewed as the son of Enki, and his name was Marduk, Baal, or Zeus, who were gods all represented by the planet Jupiter.
As far as the pagan world was concerned there was only one story to be told, even though each culture told it in a unique way with different names and each with its own culturally-relevant details. In the final analysis this story is Enki's story, and Enki's great rival Enlil, understood by so many to be YHWH the God of Israel, had to wait about fifteen hundred years before He could give His side of the story. That was the approximate length of time from the invention of writing to the moment when Moses met his appointment with God on the top of Mt. Sinai. It will be interesting as we find out what He had to say.
The Biblical Response The early chapters of the book of Genesis are written according to the following outline: Genesis 1: Creation of heaven and earth and all living things in six days.
Genesis 2: Creation of Adam and Eve.
Genesis 3: The Garden of Eden, the Serpent, and the Fall of Man.
Genesis 4: The story of Cain and Abel, and the first city built for Cain's descendents.
Genesis 5: The descendents of Adam from Seth to Noah.
Genesis 6: "Sons of God" descend to earth, produce Nephilim from relations with human women.
Genesis 7-8: The story of the Flood.
Genesis 9: The Noachide Covenant, the indiscretion of Ham and the cursing of Canaan.
Genesis 10: The seventy descendents of Noah's sons and the separation of the Nations.
Genesis 11: The Tower of Babel, the diversity of tongues, and the dispersion of the Nations.
Genesis 12: The calling out of Abraham to create the Lord's own nation.
Modern scholars find many similarities when they compare Genesis with the creation accounts of the Sumerians and Babylonians. For instance, according to Genesis, creation took place in seven days, literal or otherwise, whereas the Enuma Elish creation account of the Babylonians was written down in a division of seven tablets. Other similarities exist which were covered in Part Five, but these many similarities only serve to highlight the few important differences that do exist. These differences are enough to prove that the Hebrews had an understanding of creation and early history in common with the pagan cultures, but they viewed these events from a completely different, and in many cases opposite, perspective.
Concerning the "Fall of Man," this is the event in Genesis that sets the stage for all further divine-human relationships, whether they be mankind's relationship with God, or mankind's relationship with the "Sons of God," also known as the fallen angels, who manipulate human affairs from the spirit-world. This event also introduces the primary adversary of God and Man, who is referred to in Hebrew as the nachash of the Garden of Eden. Semitic languages scholar Dr. Michael S. Heiser believes that this word, which is usually translated as "serpent," can also be translated as "the shining one."[31] This means that this creature was not a mere snake, but was a divine being capable of using speech to flatter and deceive. Heiser associates this nachash with the descriptions of Satan in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. In Isaiah his name is given as Helel ben Shakar, which means "the shining one, son of the dawn," translated in some Bibles as "Lucifer, son of the morning," whereas Ezekiel helps to explain the origins of his overblown pride: "You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God..."
While the tempter of Eve may not have been an actual snake, he has always been associated with the serpent in one way or another. The book of Revelation (12:9) describes him as a red dragon, and refers to him as "the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world." In the book of Genesis his punishment for deceiving Eve also appears to be related to his "serpentine" aspect: "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." (Genesis 3:14-15) Within this curse upon the serpent was also a prediction of the serpent's doom, which would come from a man descended from Eve herself. The Hebrews understood this promise as the Protoevangelium, or "first prophecy," of the coming of the world's Messiah who would provide the remedy and reverse the effects of the Fall.
For the Hebrews "Satan the Serpent" was known from the beginning as a cunning deceiver who was cursed by God and would one day be destroyed by the Messiah. Compare this with the pagan view of the "shining serpent," as given by Philo of Byblos, translated from even earlier Phoenician texts: "The nature then of the dragon and of serpents Tauthus [Egyptian Thoth, Greek Hermes] himself regarded as divine, and so again after him did the Phoenicians and Egyptians: for this animal was declared by him to be of all reptiles most full of breath, and fiery. In consequence of which it also exerts an unsurpassable swiftness by means of its breath, without feet and hands or any other of the external members by which the other animals make their movements. It also exhibits forms of various shapes, and in its progress makes spiral leaps as swift as it chooses. It is also most long-lived, and its nature is to put off its old skin, and so not only to grow young again, but also to assume a larger growth; and after it has fulfilled its appointed measure of age, it is self-consumed, in like manner as Tauthus himself has set down in his sacred books: for which reason this animal has also been adopted in temples and in mystic rites... The Phoenicians call it "Good Daemon"; in like manner the Egyptians also surname it Cneph; and they add to it the head of a hawk because of the hawk's activity. Epeis also (who is called among them a chief hierophant and sacred scribe, and whose work was translated by Areius of Heracleopolis), speaks in an allegory word for word as follows: 'The first and most divine being is a serpent with the form of a hawk, extremely graceful, which whenever he opened his eyes filled all with light in his original birthplace, but if he shut his eyes, darkness came on.' Epeis here intimates that he is also of a fiery substance, by saying 'he shone through,' for to shine through is peculiar to light." [32]
The question that begs to be asked is this: What can possibly explain these two radically different perspectives on the nature of the serpent? For the Hebrews he was cursed by God to a level lower than that of animals and forced to eat dust, whereas for the pagans he was the "Good Daemon," and "the first and most divine being."
After God's cursing of the serpent the next curse falls upon Cain for killing his brother Abel. In Part Five we saw how the dispute between the shepherd and the farmer is resolved differently in Sumerian texts than in the book of Genesis, with the farming winning divine favor over the shepherd, and the shepherd becoming belligerent towards the farmer. There is also a different emphasis on the lines of descent. Genesis gives the descendents of Cain and relates their founding of the first city, but Seth's line is more important because it leads to Noah. On the other hand, the Sumerians appear to focus upon the line of Cain, with the institution of the hereditary monarchy "descending from heaven" to Enki's city, the city of Eridu, named for Irad the grandson of Cain. In contrast, as far as YHWH was concerned the institution of a monarchy was unnecessary and was viewed as inevitably leading to oppression (1 Samuel 8:10-22).
The other "descent from the heavens" account is the descent of the fallen angels themselves. This is portrayed in Genesis 6, and it involves unholy relations between some of the "sons of God" and human women, a relationship which produced the Nephilim. From this human-angelic interaction the world became "corrupt in the sight of God" and "filled with violence," which became the justification for sending the global Flood. According to pagan mythologies this was the Golden Age of Kronos when the gods lived with men during the era of the kingdom of Atlantis. However, even though it was viewed as an idealistic time when the "true religion" originally ruled, Greek writers such as Plato explained that Atlantis became corrupt in its spiritual teachings and used its great power to dominate and abuse the entire world.
The non-canonical book of Enoch explains how the fallen angels taught mankind astronomy and astrology, charms and spells, and the properties of plants and herbs. One particular angel named Azazel "taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and taught them about metals of the earth and the art of working them" (Enoch 8:1). In Genesis the craft of metalworking is ascribed to Tubal-Cain, a descendent of Cain. David Rohl associates this name with Bad-tibira, which is the second city on the Sumerian King List, following Eridu where "kingship descended from heaven."
According to Sumerian accounts the great "civilizer" of mankind was the great god Enki, the Lord of the Abzu in Eridu, who was portrayed as a firm friend and champion of mankind. On the other hand the book of Enoch explains that the innovations given to mankind were used for wicked purposes. The Nephilim ruled with an iron fist, "and when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind" (Enoch 7:4). Regarding Azazel himself, Enoch 10:8 reads: "The whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe ALL SIN."
After the Great Flood we come to a curious incident in which Ham, one of the three sons of Noah, dishonors his father. This brings about another curse, which is a curse from Noah, given because of Ham's indiscretion but applied to Ham's son Canaan. In the Sumerian King List and in the myth Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta both Meskiagkasher (Cush) and Enmerkar (Nimrod) are said to be descendents of Utu. If Utu is to be found within the book of Genesis then Utu can only be Ham, the third son of Noah who is described negatively in Genesis. On the other hand, within Sumerian mythology, specifically Enki and the World Order, we find that Utu/Ham is glorified: "Enki placed in charge of the whole of heaven and earth the hero, the bull who comes out of the aur forest bellowing truculently, the youth Utu, the bull standing triumphantly, audaciously, majestically, the father of the Great City, the great herald in the east of holy An, the judge who searches out verdicts for the gods, with a lapis-lazuli beard, rising from the horizon into the holy heavens." [33]
Utu became known as the Sun God in Sumerian mythology and the god of Truth and Justice. In the Akkadian language Utu was known as Shamash. It was Ham's grandson Nimrod who was responsible for the Tower of Babel, and we have already shown how this is portrayed in Sumerian myth as Enmerkar's attempt to renovate the Holy Abzu of Eridu in honor of Enki. In the descriptions of the role given to Utu by Enki, we can perhaps read how the young Ham (the youth Utu) left the home of his father Noah (which was a mountainous land of forests), in a fury of indignation (bellowing truculently) because of what he perceived to be an unjust verdict against himself and his son. Then Enki appears, offering flattering words and deceitful promises, after which we find that Ham becomes deified by Enki as the Sun and God of Justice!
In Egyptian myth we find that Ham is most likely represented as the god Horus. This may sound confusing on the surface, because Horus is usually viewed as the son of Osiris, who has been shown to be Nimrod, the grandson of Ham. The problem is resolved once we realize that the earliest Egyptian myths describe Horus as either the brother or uncle of Osiris. Eventually two separate Horus identities appeared whom Plutarch refers to as "Horus the Elder" and "Horus the Younger," the latter being the well-known son of Osiris and the great unifier of Egypt.[34] This interpretation makes sense because the facts show that the cult of Horus was well-known some time before the cult of Osiris was established. The worship of Horus dates back to Pre-Dynastic times to the "Falcon City" of Nekhen, while concrete evidence for the worship of Osiris first appears only in the Fourth Dynasty.
Horus was the god of the Falcon Tribe, who were the dynastic invaders of the Nile Valley who came from Mesopotamia in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Eridu. As worshipers of Enki they identified above all with Ham their most important post-flood ancestor who was, as we have shown, honored by Enki as the Sun God. In Egypt we also find that Horus is closely identified with the Sun: As Horakhty (Harakhty), or "Horus of the two horizons", Horus was the god of the rising and setting sun, but more particularly the god of the east and the sunrise. In the Pyramid Texts, the deceased king is said to be reborn in the eastern sky as Horakhty. Eventually, Horakhty became a part of the Heliopolis sun cult and was fused with its solar god as Re-Horakhty. As Behdety, or "he of [the] behdet", Horus was the hawk-winged sun disk which seems to incorporate the idea of the passage of the sun through the sky. As Hor-em-akhet (Harmachis) or "Horus in the horizon", Horus was visualized as a sun god in falcon or leonine form. [35]
Further evidence that Horus can be identified as the Biblical Ham comes from the fact that throughout Egyptian texts there are repeated references to the deified Four Sons of Horus, which is documented in the book The Ancient Gods Speak - A Guide to Egyptian Religion. These four sons are mentioned fourteen times in the Pyramid Texts, throughout the many coffin texts of the Middle Kingdom, throughout the Book of the Dead and the Book of Gates, and they even appear as representations on canopic containers holding organs of the deceased in royal tombs.[36] If Horus is indeed a deification of Ham, then the Biblical names of these four sons would be Cush, Mizraim, Put and Canaaan. The descendents of Ham were Flinders Petrie's "Falcon Tribe," known to the Egyptians as the Shemsu Hor, or "Followers of Horus," who migrated from Mesopotamia and settled in northeast Africa and around the Mediterranean Basin. They all worshiped various forms of the god Enki as their primary god, which can be traced back to Enki's spiritual seduction of Ham after Ham's unfortunate episode in the house of Noah.
It seems that at every important stage of the book of Genesis we find a description of events very similar to pagan accounts, but the interpretation of the events is given a completely opposite spin. What can account for the fact that the Hebrews, a seemingly insignificant tribe of refugees fleeing from Egypt, would seek to create a history of creation and civilization that repeatedly contradicted the way in which the surrounding nations viewed the very same history? The next section will help to answer this question.
God Against the Gods After the account of the indiscretion of Ham the book of Genesis continues in chapter ten with a listing of seventy of the descendents of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah. At the end of this listing is an explanation: "and out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood."
Chapter eleven then continues with the story that helps to explain exactly how these nations were separated, which is the story of the Tower of Babel. Hebrew tradition, as well as Josephus, maintains that this episode was directed by Nimrod, whose empire included virtually the entire civilized world. At his prodding the people of the earth said "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the earth."
According to Genesis the building of the city and the tower was begun for two reasons: 1) To "make for ourselves a name," and 2) To establish a base from which to resist the divine command given in Genesis 9 as part of the Noachide Covenant to "multiply and fill the earth." As a result of this disobedience Genesis 11:5 explains that the Lord "came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built." God's response to the situation is explained in Genesis 11:6-7, which included an appeal from God to His heavenly host: "The Lord said, 'Behold, they are one people and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language so that they will not understand one another's speech.'"
The Book of Jasher is a non-canonical book that is mentioned in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18, and it explains the identity of the "us" that God refers to in Genesis 11, "And they built the tower and the city, and they did this thing daily until many days and years were elapsed. And God said to the seventy angels who stood foremost before him, to those who were near to him, saying, 'Come let us descend and confuse their tongues, that one man shall not understand the language of his neighbor,' and they did so unto them." (Jasher 9:31) This strange episode was concluded after these "angels" agreed to God's invitation to make a "descent" from heaven to earth. The final result is given in Genesis 11:8-9, which explains how the people of the earth who resisted being scattered were forced to meet the terms of the Noachide Covenant of Genesis 9: "So the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth."
In Part Five we explained how the name of this city, given in Genesis as "Babel," was known as "Nun.ki" in Akkadian, which was the name for the original city of Eridu that was abandoned at the end of the career of the Sumerian king Enmerkar, who was the Biblical Nimrod. In Sumerian myth Eridu and Enmerkar are both intimately associated with the Sumerian god Enki. With Enki's support Enmerkar was able to conquer the civilized world, re-inhabit and rebuild Enki's pre-Flood capital of Eridu, and begin building a great Temple or Tower in honor of Enki, while at the same time resisting the divine command to spread out and inhabit the entire earth.
Under the authority of Enmerkar the world had essentially reverted back to its pre-Flood condition. Through Enmerkar Enki had succeeded in re-establishing the oppressive "kingship," and through his building projects mankind was being directed away from the worship of God and towards the worship of God's unholy Adversary. With the sign of the rainbow God had promised never to destroy mankind again, so another remedy to the situation had to be arrived at. This is the context from which to interpret God's response to the situation, which included an appeal to the seventy "angels" who stood before Him, and an agreement allowing them to "descend" to the earth once again. It was this "descent of the angels" as well as the creation of the different languages that served to separate and divide humanity from that point forward, with the "descent" proving to be most spiritually significant.
The book of Genesis does not elaborate on how these descending angels affected mankind at the time of the division of the nations. In fact, the explanation of this event does not appear until the book of Deuteronomy where it can be found within the final speech that Moses gave to the people of Israel just prior to his death: "When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man, he set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God." (Deuteronomy 32:8) [37]
These "sons of God" were members of the "heavenly host" of angelic beings that God originally created to help manage the earth and all creation. This explanation for these "sons of God" is clarified by an old Jewish Targum on this text found in a manuscript known as Pseudo-Jonathan.
"When the Most High made allotment of the world unto the nations which proceeded from the sons of Noach, in the separation of the writings and languages of the children of men at the time of the division, He cast the lot among the seventy angels, the princes of the nations."
The decision to divide the nations of the world took place in a "Divine Council" setting, with God consulting with a council of seventy "sons of God" before arriving at a decision. The "sons of God" are advanced beings, also known as "angels," and because they were created with Free Will not all of them have always acted in obedience with God and His divine plan. The seventy "sons of God" who appeared before God at this particular Divine Council to come to an agreement with God regarding the problem of the Tower of Babel were rebel angels whose interaction with humanity far pre-dated the Flood. In other words, they were a dissident faction of angels who thought they could manage humanity much better than God could. To deal with the problem of Enki's domination of the world through Nimrod and his empire God decided to allow these angels a chance to prove their argument. The end result was that the world was divided up according to "the number of the sons of God." "Seventy" was the number of members within this particular angelic faction, which is why the Table of Nations of Genesis 10 lists exactly seventy descendents of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who made up the nations that "were separated on the earth after the flood."
From God's perspective, a situation in which humanity was united against God under the control of Satan and Nimrod was exchanged for a situation in which humanity was divided against God under the control of the seventy fallen angelic "princes."
From the perspective of these seventy fallen angelic princes, they willingly agreed to the dismemberment of Nimrod's empire because it allowed for them to take control of their own individual nations and prove their skills as human managers. Now they could try their hand at "playing God" without YHWH's interference.
From the perspective of Satan/Enki, the breakup of Nimrod's empire and the fall and abandonment of Eridu was certainly a negative effect. However, as the most powerful member of this breakaway group of dissident angels Satan was confident that he would quickly regain dominance. The life of Nimrod was a sacrifice that Satan was willing to offer because it removed God from the picture and it allowed Satan and the fallen angels freedom to rule over humanity. Nimrod became the historical basis for all of the many different "Dying and Rising" gods found throughout ancient mythology, and he can be viewed as a human sacrifice offered on behalf of the "gods," for without Nimrod's death they would not have had their chance to rule as "gods."
Ancient mythology reflects the spiritual transition that occurred at the Tower of Babel. According to the Sumerian epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, at one time "the people in unison ... to Enlil in one tongue gave praise." Afterwards the authority of Enlil was diminished and it was Enki who rose to prominence, which is celebrated in the myth Enki and the World Order, which includes the account of Enki gaining control over the enigmatic me, the holy and valuable "powers" associated with divine authority and the management of human civilization.
The disappearance of YHWH from human affairs, through the transfer of direct authority over humanity to the "fallen angels," can be deduced by the existence of so-called "otiose" deities at the head of the pantheons of the pagan world. For instance, most scholars refer to the Sumerian god Anu as an "otiose Deity." He was the head of the Sumerian pantheon, but he did not actually do anything, and the Sumerians had very few, if any, representations of him, despite the fact that temples were built in his honor, such as the one excavated by Sir Leonard Wooley at Ur.
In Canaanite mythology, which is known to us from the Ugaritic texts of Ras Shamra, the "otiose deity" is the great god El. The primary Canaanite myth known as The Baal Cycle characterizes El as a deity far removed from human affairs, who falls into a dispute with his wife when he is faced with promoting one of his sons to the position of active leader of the pantheon. According to Ugaritic accounts, and this is a very significant point, the number of El's sons was exactly seventy. (See Against World Powers IV.) In Greek mythology the sky god was known as Ouranos, and he was reputed to be the wife of Gaia (the earth goddess) and the father of Kronos. Unlike the Sumerians or the Canaanites, Ouranos was not written out of the Greek story as an otiose "figurehead" deity-instead he was simply killed off by his son Kronos, who was in turn slain by his son Zeus.
The brief disappearance of YHWH from an active role in human affairs appeared to the pagan world as evidence of Enki's victory over Enlil. It also explains how YHWH's character could be so terribly slandered by the pagan priests and scribes from whom we get our descriptions of YHWH in his various degenerated forms.