Questions about Enki

[elme]

Hi everyone. This is the copy-paste of an email i sent to an anthropologist in my search for answers. I'm new to this forum. I hope you guys could help me.

Hi XXXXX


I write you because I have some questions that I think you could resolve.



In the sumerian tradition, there's a sacred triad composed by the gods Anu, Enki and Enlil. It seems like this triad was later in the semitic religions merged into one entity: YHWH. I noted that in The Bible the story of the creation of humanity, as well as the ones of the deluge and the fall of Lucifer, for reasons i don't understand, were changed. I mean: if Enki was originally the creator of humanity, a god of life and wisdom, ¿why in The Bible was presented as an evil snake and not as god? I noted that Enki was duplicated: he was a part of YHWH but also Lucifer/Azazel, the watcher angel who gave forbidden wisdom to man and because of that was cast to the underworld. At the time of the deluge, Enlil wanted to finish off man forever while Enki warned Noah about the incoming catastrophe. In The Bible, YHWH was the one who condemned and, at the same time, saved humanity. That confuses me. So, ¿was Enki intentionally demonized in The Bible? Earlier in the sumerian tradition, he was associated with the planet Mercury, just as a primitive Hermes. Later, I think, the planet was associated with his grandson, Nabu, maybe the same as the egyptian Thoth and the biblical Enoch. But ¿when was Enki finally represented by Saturn? I feel like everything is inverted in The Bible. It's told that Lucifer was cast from heaven because he didn't bow to Adam, but if we look at the sumerian tradition, it seems like the only god/angel that bowed to man was him (Enki). That said, if Enki was "the god guy" of the story, or at least the god of creation/preservation (and not of destruction), ¿why was he demonized? And, if indeed Enki was demonized ¿was his demonization iniciated in Greece with the myth of Cronus, the fratricidal titan? I can realize that Enki was splitted into two in that myth. By one side, he was Cronus/Saturn, the Titan that castrated Uranus (we can identify that story in the Enuma Elish, where Enki killed Abzu), and by the other side, he was Prometheus, the titan who created man and gave him the fire of knowledge. Both titans were judged by Zeus: one was cast to the Tartarus, the other was chained to a rock (maybe a symbol of the prism/prison) and eaten by a eagle.



So, if Enki was demonized and his symbolic nature was splitted into two divine beings just as were YHWH and Lucifer/Mercury and Saturn/Prometheus and Cronus, ¿what does that mean to the gods lineages? I'm refering here to Cain and Abel, Babylon and Jerusalem. I believe that even if Satan ends being the creator and protector of humanity, Babylon still will be the city that forgot god. There's a sumerian tablet (http://rbedrosian.com/Kramer/Kramer_1968_Babel.pdf) that tells about the confusion of tongues that took place in Babel. It explains that Enki confused the tongues of mankind because he was angry at the people of the city. He was angry because they forgot about him and started worshipping Enlil instead, the god who tried to destroy humanity. So Babylon really was the city that forgot his god-father, and therefore forgot about the principle of creation, kindness, protection, wisdom. ¿What about Jerusalem? ¿Is the city that saw St. John floating in the sky the fruit of the covenant with Enki or with Enlil? By default, it should be the one of Enki. But I'm far from being sure about this respect. ¿Could it be that Marduk, Enki's son and king of Babylon, was in the practice Enlil's symbolic heir, while Nabu, Enki's grandson, was Enki's real heir? I noted that, in the greek mythology, Zeus is much more related to Marduk and Enlil than to any other god. ¿And what about the apocalypse? ¿Is the now-really-soon the end of the fight between Enlil and Enki for the love of mankind? ¿Who should win? ¿Was The Book of Enoch/Nabu/Thoth intervened so it could support the idea of Enki/Lucifer being harmful to humanity? If all of this ends being true ¿How the idea of the underworld/abzu being the city of the devil could be affected? ¿And the idea of the sky being the place from where comes the city of god?



¿Did the west worship for thousands of years the wrong god?





Sorry for my bad English, I'm natural from Chile.

Thank you so much for your time.

I really really appreciate any answer you could give me.



Daniel XXXXX.

Again, sorry for my bad english. The "¿" at the start of the sentences is an hispanic tic. Thanks for the help.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Hello eime:





Welcome to enenuru. First, I think it is great that you are exploring ancient religion and the gods of Mesopotamia. You are looking to academia, to universities, to help test some of your ideas and questions, and to find answers. One thing I can tell you is that there are 2 different approaches (or ways of thinking) about ancient Mesopotamia: the "popular" approach and the "academic" approach.

In the academic world, most of the questions you have asked are never asked. This is because we do not see the Bible and ancient Mesopotamian texts as needing to be consistent with each other. The Mesopotamians had their religion and in their texts, An, Enlil and Enki are the high gods.
The ancient Hebrews had their religion, in the Bible YHWH is the high god.


It is possible for us to make comparisons between the Bible and Mesopotamian texts. Most Assyriologists *do* believe that the Biblical flood story was borrowed from the Mesopotamian traditions about the flood, for example. But what one needs to understand is, as soon as a set of beliefs become codified and solidified into a new religion, that new religion stands by itself - it becomes legitimate simply because its followers believe in it. So was ancient Israelite religion influenced by Mesopotamian religon? Yes. Does than mean Enki and Enlil must be somewhere in Israelite religion? No. Christianity and Islam were clearly influenced by Judaism, but where is the Christian Satan or where is Mohammad in the Old Testament? It is possible for some elements of Mesopotamian religion to have a place in the Old Testament - it is not necessary however. So you must have strong proof to make the claim of influence.



In popular books, these claims are made all the time, and they inspire questions such as you are asking - for example, the suggestion that Enki was presented as an evil snake - but, what proof is there that the Hebrew scribes who wrote the Old Testament ever thought that an evil snake has anything to do with the Mesopotamian god Enki? They say these things in popular books, but they give no proof. The reader of popular books finds all sorts of fascinating connections and it all seems to make sense - but the methodology, the proof of research and science, is no where in these books, only the fascinating suggestions. Without proof - it really is too good to be true.

In academic books, proof must be provided for every single statement that has to do with how ancient people thought. If you read academic books instead, published by universities, you will not have these questions any more, but you will have different questions, ones which are according to the current science of the study of ancient religion. If you want such books, I suggest you go to the following link and search for "Mesopotamia" "Sumer" and "Akkadian" and so on:

gen.lib.rus.ec/



Best of luck, and feel free to ask anything you would like here