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Old 05-06-2001, 02:26 PM   #1
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Question Ancient tablets and Holy Books(of God)

I have a question(again). I ask this because of my curiousity(again):
Is it true that there are some similarities between Holy Books and tablets of ancient Mesopotamia (Sumer, Babylon etc.)? For example, we read 'flood' on the tablets. So we know 'flood' is written on the Holy Books.
But, if there is no God, did Arabians or Jewish people know Sumerian language?
Excuse me for my mistakes(if any exists) and for my English...
 
Old 05-06-2001, 02:59 PM   #2
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Quote:
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Adapa:
Is it true that there are some similarities between Holy Books and tablets of ancient Mesopotamia (Sumer, Babylon etc.)? For example, we read 'flood' on the tablets. So we know 'flood' is written on the Holy Books.
</font>


The writings of ancient Mesopotamia are similar to those of the Bible. They predate the Bible, therefore we can conclude the Bible borrows from them, just as the Qur'an borrows from the Bible. It's straightforward diffusion of ideas. The laws of Hammurabi are similar to those in the Torah (an eye for an eye etc), and the Gilgamesh Epic contains the Flood story, with the remnant chosen by the gods (Utnapishtim, parallel to Noah).

Quote:
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
But, if there is no God, did Arabians or Jewish people know Sumerian language?
Excuse me for my mistakes(if any exists) and for my English...
</font>
What has the existence of God to do with knowledge of languages? Sumerian was a widely spoken language in ancient times, and tradesmen would often pass stories from their travels around the lands.

By the way, Adapa, how's things in Turkey?
 
Old 05-06-2001, 03:13 PM   #3
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You will get better response to your question in the Biblical Criticism and Archaeology forum, so I'll move it there for you.
 
Old 05-06-2001, 03:29 PM   #4
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I read that Sumerian was being studied in Babylon thousands of years ago. So it was a different language. And, I don't think they studied Sumerian and made a similar book (like Jewish Bible).
 
Old 05-06-2001, 04:49 PM   #5
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"I read that Sumerian was being studied in Babylon thousands of years ago. So it was a different language. And, I don't think they studied Sumerian and made a similar book (like Jewish Bible)."

Abraham came from Ur a Sumerian city, Yes Sumerian is non semetic, Sumer was conquered by the Akkadians in 2250 BC, Sargon the Great, and the language was translated to the more semetic Akkadian.
There are several ancient Sumerian Babylonia Assyrian texts similar to the Bible;
The Enuma Elish: 7 tablets of Creation
The Atrahasis
and the previously mentioned Epic of Gilgamesh.
 
Old 05-09-2001, 02:08 PM   #6
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Maya and Aztec myths are similar to Sumerian or Babylonian. How could this be ? Is it only a chance?
 
Old 05-09-2001, 03:56 PM   #7
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For some wild but interesting speculation on this topic, pick up one of Zechariah Sitchin's books on this 'Genesis Revisited' or 'The Lost Realms' or '12th Planet'.
Of course it could be a coincidense or there could have been contact between the old & new worlds, the Phonecians were skilled sailors & navigators, maybe the Sumerians were too.
 
Old 05-09-2001, 04:14 PM   #8
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Adapa, in what way were those myths similar? Please go into detail.
 
Old 05-09-2001, 04:40 PM   #9
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Quote:
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Adapa:
Maya and Aztec myths are similar to Sumerian or Babylonian. How could this be ? Is it only a chance?</font>
Myth, as the anthropologists use the term, is the closest humans can come to absolute truth. Myth defines cultural boundaries. When agricultural groups depend on a river or rainfall for their very existence there are bound to be stories carried on from past floods that take on a larger "meaning" for those hearing them.

Plus the fact that humans seem to come already "hard-wired" for religion and it comes as no real surprise.

In other words, the world was not destroyed but in the mythic world, the particular culture's "world" WAS.

 
Old 05-09-2001, 05:12 PM   #10
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Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees? So what? It is like saying Jesus came from Galilee. Pseudo-names, period. Jesus was born and raised near Qumran and Abraham's Ur of the Chaldees will be a similiar location. This is the same location of Moses' Egypt. The Hebrews (Jews held captive by Nebuchadnezzar learned the lore of the Sumerians and the Assyrians and plagarised their stories.

thanks, offa
 
 

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