trans. George A. Barton
1916/1927
|
NOTE |
The text below is one of several Mesopotamian accounts of the creation, though certainly less famous that the Enuma Elish or the Eridu Genesis. This account is written in Sumerian on a clay tablet excavated at Ashur. This version is important because it is an older variant of the story known from the Enuma Elish of the creation of humanity from the blood of a slain god. The text was published in E. Ebeling's Keilschrifttexte aus Assur Religions Inhalts, Leipzig, 1915-1919, No. 4, and translated into English by George A. Barton for Archæology and the Bible in 1916. I have taken the text below, along with the translator's opening and closing commentary, from the fifth edition of Archæology and the Bible, which was published in 1927.
|
Another Sumerian Account of the Creation of Man.
Still another account of the creation of man has been found among the tablets discovered at the city of Ashur. This was copied by the Assyrian scribes from a Sumerian text so old that it is accompanied not only by an Assyrian translation, but by many kabbalistic symbols. It reads as follows:
1. When both heaven and earth had been completely established;
2. When the mother of the goddesses had been born;
3. When the earth had been brought forth, the land created,
4. When the domes of heaven and earth had been established,
5. Straight canals had been constructed;
6. The Tigris and Euphrates-their banks had been established;
7. Anu, Enlil, Shamash, Ea,
8. The great gods,
9. The Anunnaki, the great gods,
10. Lofty sanctuaries inhabited as creators.
11. In anxiety they asked:
12. "Since the domes of heaven and earth have been established,
13. Straight canals have been constructed,
14. The Tigris and Euphrates
15. Their banks have been established,
16. What shall we change?
17. What shall we create?
18. O Anunnaki, ye great gods,
19. What shall we change?
20. What shall we create?"
21. The great gods, standing aloft,
22. The Anunnaki, who determine fate,
23. The two of them made answer to Enlil:
24. "In the land where flesh grows, the bond of heaven and earth,
25. Lamga, Lamga, we will overthrow;
26. From his blood mankind we will make,
27. Let the bonds of the gods be bound upon them;
28. For future days the limit
29. Be established;
30. The yoke and lifting cord on their hands
31. Be placed,
32. The temple of the great gods
33. Unto a lofty sanctuary to bring,
34. The meadows to mark out,
35. Forever their limits
36. To establish,
37. The straight canal
38. As a boundary to establish,
39. The earth to water, the plants
40. To raise,
41. The rain of heaven, the rain of heaven. . . . . . . . . .
42. The ravine of the land as a boundary to set,
43. The storehouse of the district to measure it,
44. To make the field of the Annunaki produce,
45. To increase the abundance of the land,
46. To keep the feast of the gods,
47. Cool water to pour out
48. In the dwellings of the gods which have been made lofty.
49. Ullugarra and Nigarra
50. Shall they be called.
51. Ox, sheep, cattle, fish, and bird,
52. The abundance of the land to increase,
53. The lord of gladness and the lady of gladness
54. With their holy mouth to supplicate.
55. O Aruru, who hast been raised up for ladyship,
56. Great structures thou thyself shalt enclose,
57. Wise men for the people, heroes for the weak,
58. Like grain springing of itself from the earth, shall be made,
59. A destiny unchangeable as a star forever.
60. By day and night
61. The feasts of the gods,
62. Their great appointed festivals of themselves
63. They shall celebrate."
64. Anu, Enlil,
65. Ea, Ninmakhu
66. The great gods,
67. The place of mankind created.
68. The goddess Nisaba1 in mankind's place was established.
69. Mighty and secret things
70. As a scribe I teach.
2. When the mother of the goddesses had been born;
3. When the earth had been brought forth, the land created,
4. When the domes of heaven and earth had been established,
5. Straight canals had been constructed;
6. The Tigris and Euphrates-their banks had been established;
7. Anu, Enlil, Shamash, Ea,
8. The great gods,
9. The Anunnaki, the great gods,
10. Lofty sanctuaries inhabited as creators.
11. In anxiety they asked:
12. "Since the domes of heaven and earth have been established,
13. Straight canals have been constructed,
14. The Tigris and Euphrates
15. Their banks have been established,
16. What shall we change?
17. What shall we create?
18. O Anunnaki, ye great gods,
19. What shall we change?
20. What shall we create?"
21. The great gods, standing aloft,
22. The Anunnaki, who determine fate,
23. The two of them made answer to Enlil:
24. "In the land where flesh grows, the bond of heaven and earth,
25. Lamga, Lamga, we will overthrow;
26. From his blood mankind we will make,
27. Let the bonds of the gods be bound upon them;
28. For future days the limit
29. Be established;
30. The yoke and lifting cord on their hands
31. Be placed,
32. The temple of the great gods
33. Unto a lofty sanctuary to bring,
34. The meadows to mark out,
35. Forever their limits
36. To establish,
37. The straight canal
38. As a boundary to establish,
39. The earth to water, the plants
40. To raise,
41. The rain of heaven, the rain of heaven. . . . . . . . . .
42. The ravine of the land as a boundary to set,
43. The storehouse of the district to measure it,
44. To make the field of the Annunaki produce,
45. To increase the abundance of the land,
46. To keep the feast of the gods,
47. Cool water to pour out
48. In the dwellings of the gods which have been made lofty.
49. Ullugarra and Nigarra
50. Shall they be called.
51. Ox, sheep, cattle, fish, and bird,
52. The abundance of the land to increase,
53. The lord of gladness and the lady of gladness
54. With their holy mouth to supplicate.
55. O Aruru, who hast been raised up for ladyship,
56. Great structures thou thyself shalt enclose,
57. Wise men for the people, heroes for the weak,
58. Like grain springing of itself from the earth, shall be made,
59. A destiny unchangeable as a star forever.
60. By day and night
61. The feasts of the gods,
62. Their great appointed festivals of themselves
63. They shall celebrate."
64. Anu, Enlil,
65. Ea, Ninmakhu
66. The great gods,
67. The place of mankind created.
68. The goddess Nisaba1 in mankind's place was established.
69. Mighty and secret things
70. As a scribe I teach.
This account shows that there were among the Babylonian traditions variations of the idea that man was made from the blood of a god. In this account, instead of being from the blood of Kingu, one of the rebellious gods, husband of the arch-rebel Tiâmat, he is made from the blood of Lamga, the craftsman, the god of carpenters.
It will be noted that, as in the sixth tablet of the Creation Epic, so in this account man was created by the gods for the specific purpose of tilling the ground, building temples, and keeping up the festivals of the gods. It accords in that respect with the thought of the second chapter of Genesis, where man is placed in Eden, the garden of God, to dress it and to keep it for his Divine Creator (see Genesis 2:15).
It will be noted that, as in the sixth tablet of the Creation Epic, so in this account man was created by the gods for the specific purpose of tilling the ground, building temples, and keeping up the festivals of the gods. It accords in that respect with the thought of the second chapter of Genesis, where man is placed in Eden, the garden of God, to dress it and to keep it for his Divine Creator (see Genesis 2:15).
|
Source: George A. Barton, Archæology and the Bible, 5th ed. (Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, 1927), 279-280.
|
