Tag: Babylonian

Analogs of the Christian Bible’s Epic of Noah’s Ark

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In London, England in 2014, Dr. Irving Finkel, one of, if not the worlds most foremost authoritive upon cuneiform writing, published a book entitled “The Ark Before Noah” which states that a 3700 year old Sumerian tablet translated by Finkel depicts the Christian biblical story of Noah and the flood which drowned the world. This tablet is at the very least 1000 years older than that of the Biblical epic. In the Christina Bible, Noah is warned of a cataclysmic flood by God. A similar story exists in ancient Indian Vedic texts in which King Manu was forewarned by Lord Vishnu in the form a fish, of a great flood impending, with Manu constructing a large boat and ultimately surviving. In the Babylonian poem the Epic of Gilgamesh, the protagonist Utnapishtim (pronounced “ut-nah-pish-tim”) is advised of an impending flood by the god Enki (pronounced “en-kee”). In ancient Aztec culture, a sacred male and female couple hide within a hollow tree with corn while holding steady as the deluge of a great flood envelops the Earth. Ancient Celtic, Norse, and Chinese mythology also account similar stories in which a great flood occurs and only some survive. The common denominator between all of these stories is intervention by a force which knew ahead of time of the impending cataclysm

The Advent of the Envelope

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The first envelopes ever developed were by the Babylonians over 4000 years ago. The Babylonians baked clay around documents to ensure they were protected from being read whilst in transit

The World’s Oldest Form of Writing 

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Cuneiform (pronounced “kyu-neh-ah-form”) originated in modern day Iraq, in a region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, a region referred to as “Mesopotamia”. Cuneiform is the oldest writing system ever developed. In 1750 B.C., a Babylonian cuneiform clay tablet accounted the story of Noah’s Ark, but what makes this tablet unique is that the story shows up 1000 years before it does within the Christian Bible. The stories between the tablet and the biblical epic match perfectly however the tablet contains additional details such as the fact that the boat which was used was circular in shape

The Building and Keeping of the Arc of the Covenant

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The Hebrew term for “ark” translates to “closet” or “cupboard” when taken literally. It’s estimated that it took 60 kilograms of gold to build the Ark of the Covenant, a feat which would require nearly 20,000 wedding rings to provide a modern perspective. The ark was measured in cubits which was a biblical measurement approximately the length of an adult male forearm, with the ark itself being 4 cubits in length by 1.5 cubits height and 1.5 cubits wide. The ark is described within the Bible as the “throne of God”. This symbolism was most likely borrowed from the Egyptians as a similar shrine was found within the tomb of Tutankhamun, guarded by the Egyptian god Anubis, remarkably similar to the way in which it is described to be guarded by God in the Bible. Portable shrines were incredibly common in ancient Egypt and although the Bible states that the Ark of the Covenant was instructed by God, it clearly was manufactured using borrowed ideas, religious motifs, and building techniques. Although Ethiopia vehemently protests that the Ark of the Covenant resides within a single temple in Ethiopia, most experts believe that it was destroyed by the Babylonians during the destroying of the temple in which the Ark of the Covenant was held, in 586 A.D.. The alternate theory is that the Ark of the Covenant has simply fallen apart due to the ravages of time and therefore no longer exists anywhere in the world