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    Sumerian Biblical Parallel

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    Abhishek P Benjamin
    The document discusses several Sumerian myths that deal with conflicts between farmers and herders, including the myths of "Cain and Able" and "Inanna Prefers the Farmer." It also discusses the myth "Debate Between Cattle and Grain" which involves the gods creating man to make use of their products. The document then connects these Sumerian myths to the biblical story of Abraham, noting he came from the city of Ur, and would have been familiar with local myths and beliefs, showing where the biblical stories originated.

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    Sumerian Biblical Parallel

    Uploaded by

    Abhishek P Benjamin
    788 views2 pages
    The document discusses several Sumerian myths that deal with conflicts between farmers and herders, including the myths of "Cain and Able" and "Inanna Prefers the Farmer." It also discusses the myth "Debate Between Cattle and Grain" which involves the gods creating man to make use of their products. The document then connects these Sumerian myths to the biblical story of Abraham, noting he came from the city of Ur, and would have been familiar with local myths and beliefs, showing where the biblical stories originated.

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    Sumerian Biblical Parallel

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    The document discusses several Sumerian myths that deal with conflicts between farmers and herders, including the myths of "Cain and Able" and "Inanna Prefers the Farmer." It also discusses the myth "Debate Between Cattle and Grain" which involves the gods creating man to make use of their products. The document then connects these Sumerian myths to the biblical story of Abraham, noting he came from the city of Ur, and would have been familiar with local myths and beliefs, showing where the biblical stories originated.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    788 views2 pages

    Sumerian Biblical Parallel

    Uploaded by

    Abhishek P Benjamin
    The document discusses several Sumerian myths that deal with conflicts between farmers and herders, including the myths of "Cain and Able" and "Inanna Prefers the Farmer." It also discusses the myth "Debate Between Cattle and Grain" which involves the gods creating man to make use of their products. The document then connects these Sumerian myths to the biblical story of Abraham, noting he came from the city of Ur, and would have been familiar with local myths and beliefs, showing where the biblical stories originated.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Cain and Able: Inanna prefers the Farmer

    The struggle between farmers and herders is a common motif in Mesopotamia. It


    shows up early on in the story of Cain and Able where the moral is that a
    sacrifice of vegetation is nothing compared to a sacrifice of meat.

    In the myth "Inanna Prefers the Farmer" Dumuzi, the shepherd god, competes
    with a farm god for the affections of Inanna. Inanna ends up preferring the
    farmer, but Dumuzi ends up wooing her after threatening the farm god with
    violence.

    In each of these myths similar things happen, but with reversed roles. Cain
    committed violence against able, and the outside force preferred the farmer to
    the shepherd in the biblical version.

    The theme can again be seen in the myth "Debate between Cattle and Grain"
    where Lahar, god of cattle, and his sister Ashnan, goddess of grain, were created
    so that the gods could enjoy their products. These gods were unable to make
    effective use of these items, so man was created.

    The Sumerian gods, being relatively peaceful by comparison, did not end up at
    each others throats. They did however argue about who is the greater, in the
    process belittling the other's product. We don't know who won that argument as
    we do not yer have the end of that myth.

    Abraham of Ur: A direct connection

    How do we know that the Sumerian myths came before the biblical myths? In the
    bible Abraham is said to come from the city of Ur of the Chaldeas. That means
    that Abraham would have come out of the middle east and been aware of the
    myths, customs, and beliefs of the people of Ur.

    Abraham was thought to have lived sometime around 1850 BC. This would have
    placed him as a contemporary with Sargon the first of Assyria, not to be
    confused with Sargon the great founder of the Akkadian Dynasty, according to G.

    Roux. He would have been an Akkadian speaking person from Babylon. This
    would have been long before the Chaldeans, but the city would still be the same.

    The bible described Abraham's behavior and the behavior of those who were
    with him and we can easily see that they were shining examples of what an
    Akkadian of the day would have been like. He was gracious as both a host and a
    guest. He was loyal to his personal god, going so far as to make a traditional
    covenant with him.

    This connection is important. Some have argued over the years that the early
    parts of the bible were simply stories made up for entertainment or for other
    reasons. This connection shows not only where the myths come from, but it puts
    them in a context that makes sense for the culture of the day.

    Over time this man who followed many gods would give rise to a people who
    recognized many gods but followed only one as we can see in the time of Moses.
    From there they would go through the reforms of Leviticus and develop into the
    strictly monotheistic people that we think of today as the Jews. From there the
    monotheism would break down into a triumvirate with an evil god as their rival
    and be added to a host of saints and angels to become the Christian pantheon of
    today.

    The flood: Removing man from the earth

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