The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria

oth

hem with him, thus leading to a tendency to monotheism. That tendency is, perhaps, hinted at in a letter of A??ur-ban?-apli to the Babylonians, in which he frequently mentions the Deity, but in doing so, uses either the word /?lu/, "God," Merodach, the god of Babylon, or Bêl, which may be regarded as one of his names. The most importa

Merodach o

is Merodach of t

erodach of

s Meroda

Merodach

h of lordship

rodach of

the illuminato

odach of rig

Merodach

Merodach o

dach of gre

dach of the irri

but as the colophon seems to describe it as a copy of an older inscription, it may go back as far as 2000 years B.C. This is the period at which the name /Yaum-?lu/ "Jah is God," is found, together with numerous references to /?lu/ as the name for the one gr

al

icable to the system in that it makes of the sea and the deep (for such are the meanings of the two words) two personages-the female and the male personifications of prim?val matter, from which all creation sprang, and which gave birth to the gods of heaven themselves. As far as the physical c

Mo

s 2, 6, and 7, water is represented as the first thing existing, though not the first abode of life. This divergency from the Babylonian view was inevitable with a monotheistic nation, such as the Jews were, regarding as they did the Deity as the great sour

lement or principle from which everything is developed, this single principle bein

uture

unding nations possessed. As has been shown, a portion of their creed consisted in hero-worship, which pre-supposes that the heroe

m and his from the Flood, and there is but little doubt that the author of the story implied that he announced thereby his approaching death, or his departure to dwell with his god without passing the dread portals of the great leveller. This belief in the life beyond the grave seems to have been that which was current during the final centuries of the

dwell. His death, however, had not been like that of an ordinary man; it was not Namtaru, the spirit of fate, who had taken him, nor a misfortune such as befalls ordinary men, but Nerigal's unsparing lier-in-wait-yet though Nerigal wa

t (/utukku/) of Enki-du like mist." Immediately after this come the words, "Tell, my friend, tell, my friend-the law of the land which thou sawest, tell," and the answer, "I will not tell thee, friend, I will not tell thee-if I tell thee the

die] the death(?) [

of . . . reposing, pu

tle thou sawest

d his mother

e upon [him

st seen thrown down

in the earth

u sawest without a

the dish, the re

treet is throw

f the righteous," o

resembling in meaning the /ka/ of the Egyptians. To all appearance the abode described above is not the place of the punishment of the wicked, but the dwelling of those accounted good, who, if lucky in the manner of their death, and the disposal of their

f No-return, the

daughter of

f Sin set then

f gloom, the sea

whose entrance

whose way ha

ose enterers are

eir nourishment,

not, in darkn

ke a bird, in a

and bolt the d

the names

enterer goet

of clothing, until, at the last, she entered quite naked, apparently typifying the fact that a man can take nothing with him when he dieth, and also, in this ca

tened him with all kinds of torments-the food of the gutters of the city were to be his food, the oil-jars of the city (naptha?) his drink, the gloom of the castle his resting-place, a stone slab his seat, and hunger and thirst were to shatter his strength. These were evidently the punishments inflicted there, but as the messenger threatened was a divine one, they wer

E RELIGION OF THE BAB

. The Religion of the

or A. H

s, by the Author, 1895 (Journal of th

ia and Assyria, by Morr

vol. i. 1905, vol

and Mythology, by L.

Religions of Egypt and

. Sa

f the Records of Assyri

rtions referring to B

the Manchester Museum

or,

D BABYLONIAN DEITIES, AND THE

ible, edited by Dr.

lica, edited by