Connection between the Genesis "Fall of Man" and a Sumerian Myth

[Rainbow Mage]

First off: Read the myth of Adapa and the Food of Life following the link below, if you haven't.

ADAPA AND THE FOOD OF LIFE

Do you find it interesting that this Sumerian story that is probably centuries older then the Genesis account is so similar?

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Read the part about Lord Anu offering Adapa the food of his table to make him immortal, but Tammuz tricks him out of it. Is that not almost exactly like the tree of life and the serpent in the Genesis story?

 

[LyricalDutchess]

I believe there are many stories that are very similar to the story of creation. Thats why many say the bible copied them. As many say the story of Jesus Christ is a copy of the story of Horus.

What it really comes down to is what you believe.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Well I don't think Jesus' story is a copy of Horus, but I think it possible the Genesis story is a copy of other things. The Genesis is a mostly traditional work, and we don't know how old some of the traditions are, or where they originate from.

 

[fallingblood]

It would be no surprise that Genesis was borrowed. The influence Babylon had on the Hebrews is only logical since they did conquer the Hebrews. And the Babylonians are know to have borrowed quite extensively from the Sumerians.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Yet, some seem to deny there's any connection between the Bible and ancient mythologies. Another one I call to mind is the flood story, which appears in the epic of Gilgamesh in an entirely different way.

 

[fallingblood]

Yet, some seem to deny there's any connection between the Bible and ancient mythologies. Another one I call to mind is the flood story, which appears in the epic of Gilgamesh in an entirely different way.

Does people denying the connection give it any credence? I would say not. Many people believe that psychics truly to have mystical powers; however, that does not mean that they truly do. There have been people who have even stated that I had mystical powers; again though, that really means nothing.

If one looks at the time in which the Old Testament was being written, and the contact that the writers would most likely have had, it is no wonder that Sumerian lore was copied into the Bible. Even just understanding the nature of history during that time, how it was written, and the fact that it was completely alright to borrow from other works, it is no wonder why it seems as if the Hebrews borrowed from Sumerian lore.

Add that to the fact that the Babylonians are known to have adopted much of the Sumerian culture, and that the Babylonians conquered the Hebrews, it is only logical that they adopted some Sumerian lore.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Some have speculated the epic of Gilgamesh is originally Sumerian in origin, not Babylonian. Do we really know anything about Babylon though prior to their adopting the Sumerian religion and pantheon? I know the Babylonians and Sumerians were very close neighbors, and Babylon was later Zoroastrian under the Persians.

 

[Perfect Circle]

There are several books of the Tanakh that borrow elements from Mesopotamian and Mediterranean mythology. This is nothing new...

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Epic of Gilgamesh Tablet One

"Anu granted him the totality of knowledge of all.
He saw the Secret, discovered the Hidden,
he brought information of (the time) before the Flood."

 

[Random]

Attempting to establish concrete meanings and interpretations of myths is a zero-sum game, one which most often leads to nothing but ahistorical speculation. I too myself have been guilty of this in the past. Whether the myth of Sumeria, or those of Genesis; similarity in one or many aspects is only justification for speculation, nothing else can be positively known. That said, it's okay to put the theory out there to see if it gets a hit; stirring the imagination can lead to 'intuitive' breakthroughs which can be genuinely useful in one's quest to try and understand our existence and find meaning; but it can't be done accurately through myth alone. Always remember, the past is a dead thing, it cannot be changed; and despite what you might think, it doesn't always determine the present as much as perhaps we'd like to think it does.

 

[fallingblood]

Some have speculated the epic of Gilgamesh is originally Sumerian in origin, not Babylonian. Do we really know anything about Babylon though prior to their adopting the Sumerian religion and pantheon? I know the Babylonians and Sumerians were very close neighbors, and Babylon was later Zoroastrian under the Persians.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is of Sumerian origin. That's what I was saying. The Babylonians borrowed much from the Sumerians. In return, the Hebrews borrowed much from the Babylonians, and in a away, the Sumerians.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Can we know for sure the epic of Gilgamesh is of Sumerian origin though? The oldest existing form of the epic we have is from Babylon, and the Greco-Roman Paganism shows that one culture adapting a pantheon from another culture doesn't always make the elements of the religion originally the prior. The Romans innovated many things into their version of worship of the Olympians.

 

[fallingblood]

Can we know for sure the epic of Gilgamesh is of Sumerian origin though? The oldest existing form of the epic we have is from Babylon, and the Greco-Roman Paganism shows that one culture adapting a pantheon from another culture doesn't always make the elements of the religion originally the prior. The Romans innovated many things into their version of worship of the Olympians.

Yes, we can know, to pretty much to beyond a reasonable doubt, that it is from Sumerian origin.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Care to provide an article for this falling blood, if you'd be so kind?

 

[gnostic]

Yet, some seem to deny there's any connection between the Bible and ancient mythologies. Another one I call to mind is the flood story, which appears in the epic of Gilgamesh in an entirely different way.

Older than the standard version of Gilgamesh (Epic of Gilgamesh), is the Old Babylonian story of Atrahasis, where Utnapishtim is called Atrahasis. The story of Atrahasis was derived from an even older source, from the Sumerian poem, known as Eridu Genesis, where Ziusudra is the same person as Atrashasis and Utnapishtim. And the name of Ziusudra are found in few other sources, written about the same period of the Eridu Genesis, in the Sumerian poems of Gilgamesh.

So Noah was derived from Utnapishtim, Atrahasis and Ziusudra. The Eridu Genesis is over a thousand years older than the Genesis, if not more. Atrahasis is at least 800 years older than the Genesis, if not more.

Read the part about Lord Anu offering Adapa the food of his table to make him immortal, but Tammuz tricks him out of it. Is that not almost exactly like the tree of life and the serpent in the Genesis story?

In the translation I have read, it was Ea (or Enki) who tricked Adapa, instead of Tammuz.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Isn't Enki the one some associate with the god of the Bible gnostic?

 

[fallingblood]

Does one need to provide articles for an idea that is nearly accepted all scholars?

Now, I usually don't cite wikipedia, but I think in this case, it works http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh

But here are a few more:
Gilgamesh Summary
Epic of Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh: A Spiritual Biography by W. T. S. Thackara
gilgamesh.html
gilgamesh

I could provide more scholarly articles, but I think these should be credible enough, and show my point clearly.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Thank you falling blood, I'll read through those

 

[gnostic]

Can we know for sure the epic of Gilgamesh is of Sumerian origin though? The oldest existing form of the epic we have is from Babylon, and the Greco-Roman Paganism shows that one culture adapting a pantheon from another culture doesn't always make the elements of the religion originally the prior. The Romans innovated many things into their version of worship of the Olympians.

Yes, it is. The epic of Gilgamesh did originate from Sumerian sources.

There are at least 5 Sumerian poems of Gilgamesh, where his name is either called Gilgames or Bilgames.

There are translations by Andrew George, which I got a couple of years ago.

It contained not only the standard version (SV) of the epic, tablets found in the Library of Nineveh, but many others tablets, some older and some younger than the SV.

Here is the book detail, Yosef, which you buy from the bookstore:

The Epic of Gilgamesh: A New Translation
translated by Andrew George
Penguin Classics, 1999.
​

The Sumerian poems of Gilgamesh are found in chapter 5 of this book, pages 141-208.