Biblical Archaeology session 4
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Biblical Archaeology session 4
- 1. THE BIBLE AND ARCHAEOLOGY Session 4 Welcome
- 2. REVIEW LAST WEEK What did he say?
- 4. ORIGINAL ROSETTA STONE Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs Demotic script Ancient Greek King Ptolemy V 196 BC DISCOVERED IN 1799 BY AN EXPEDITION DIRECTED BY ONE OF NAPOLEON’S EXCAVATION DIRECTORS
- 6. SUMERIAN KING LIST • Tablets and fragments of tablets (six lists) • Discovered in ancient tells in southern Iraq • List of kings who reigned before and after the Flood • Political documents • Made of fired or hardened clay • Written in Old Babylonian script (Cuneiform) WHAT IS IT? AND WHAT ARE THEY?
- 7. SUMERIAN KING LIST PRISM
- 9. CITIES LIST IN THE PRISM
- 10. LIST OF CITIES ANCIENT SUMER
- 11. LIST OF THE KINGS BEFORE THE FLOOD ALULIM RULED AS KING 28,800 YEARS ELALGAR RULED 43,200 YEARS AMMILU'ANNA RULED 36,000 YEARS ENMEGALANNA RULED 28,800 YEARS DUMUZI RULED 28,800 YEARS EN-SIPA-ZI-ANNA RULED 13,800 YEARS MEDURANKI RULED 7,200 YEARS UBUR-TUTU RULED 36,000 YEARS
- 12. DIFFERENCES COMPARISON KING LIST TABLET GENESIS 5 Establish political/earthly legitimacy Establish genealogical/spiritual legitimacy Eight names Ten names General numbering system Specific numbering system City Centered People Centered
- 13. SIMILARITIES COMPARISON KING LIST TABLET GENESIS 5 Mentions the Flood Describes the Flood Detailed lists beginning at creation Succession from Adam to Noah Center in Mesopotamia Live in Mesopotamia Long reigns Long lifespans
- 14. CONCLUSIONS • The Bible focuses on people and relationships • The text of the Old Testament is very specific • Longevity was not considered unusual in pre-flood Mesopotamia and ancient history • The Bible is coherent in its narrative • Our focus needs to be in redemptive history
- 15. QUESTIONS? Does anyone have any questions about last weeks lesson?
- 16. ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE FLOOD Babylonian Flood account Epic of Gilgamesh
- 17. ARCHAEOLOGY EPIC OF GILGAMESH • Twelve large tablets • The tablets date to 7th Century BC but the material goes back another 1000 years • Language is Akkadian or Sumerian and Old Babylonian in cuneiform characters • The 12 major tablets were found in the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh • Other smaller tablets and fragments have been found in surrounding sites
- 18. ENGLISH ARCHAEOLOGIST Austen Henry Layard George Adam Smith Hormuzd Rassam Digging in Nineveh
- 19. LIBRARY OF ASHURBANIPAL (668-626 B.C.) King of Assyria
- 20. BIBLICAL CONNECTIONS • Genesis 10:10 mentions Erech or Uruk • Search for immortality (eternal life) • Seeks out Noah (Utanapishtim) for advice • Mentions the flood (deluge) • Gilgamesh is described as a giant--16-18 feet high (Genesis 6:4) • Gilgamesh wants to kill the “god” who caused the flood (Humbaba or Humwawa)
- 21. WHO IS GILGAMESH? • King of Erech (Uruk) between circa 2700- 2500 BC (ruled for 126 years) • Hero of Sumerian and Babylonian epic poetry • Son of the goddess Ninsun • Father was a 'lillu' (spirit) • One of the kings on The Sumerian king-list • The Sumerian king-list was composed circa 2100 BC
- 22. KING GILGAMESH
- 23. THE SUMERIAN KING LIST WELD-BLUNDELL PRISM
- 24. WHERE AND WHEN WAS IT DISCOVERED? 1839
- 25. EPIC OF GILGAMESH Who discovered it? Austen Henry Layard
- 26. EPIC OF GILGAMESH Who translated it? Henry Rawlinson
- 27. CUNEIFORM TABLET
- 28. CUNEIFORM SCRIPT
- 29. A NEW LANGUAGE CUNEIFORM (WEDGE SHAPED)
- 30. THE CAST OF CHARACTERS Epic of Gilgamesh • Gilgamesh - Main character • Enkidu – Main companion of Gilgamesh • Shamhat - A temple prostitute • Utnapishtim - Babylonian Noah • Utnapishtim’s wife • Urshanabi - Guardian of “stone things” • The Hunter – Tries to tame Enkidu • Group of major gods
- 31. EPIC OF GILGAMESH PLOT • Five different poems combined in an epic • Gilgamesh is a cruel despot and unjust king of Uruk • The gods respond to the people of the city to distract Gilgamesh • The gods send Gilgamesh on a number of quests • One quest is for eternal life where he seeks out Utnapishtim
- 32. SIMILARITIES TO THE BIBLICAL FLOOD STORY BIBLE GILGAMESH 1. Divinely Planned Divinely Planned 2. Divinely Revealed Divinely Revealed 3. Defection in the Human Race Defection in the Human Race 4. Deliverance of the Hero and His Family Deliverance of the Hero and His Family
- 33. SIMILARITIES (CONTINUED) BIBLE GILGAMESH 5. Divinely Instructed to Build a Huge Boat Divinely Instructed to Build a Huge Boat 6. Specify the Duration of the Flood Specify the Duration of the Flood 7. Name the Landing Place of the Boat Name the Landing Place of the Boat 8. Include Similar Striking Details Include Similar Striking Details
- 34. MAJOR DIFFERENCES TO THE BIBLICAL FLOOD STORY BIBLE GILGAMESH 1. Monotheistic Polytheistic 2. Moral framework Immoral 3. Differentiates between spirit and matter Mixes spirit and matter (pantheism) 4. Clear on the reason for the flood The gods argued about the reason for the flood.
- 35. MINOR DIFFERENCES (continued) BIBLE GILGAMESH 5. Noah was public about the flood coming The gods kept the flood a secret 6. 40 day flood 6-7 days and nights flood 7. 450 feet long boat Boat the size of a cube 8. Mount Ararat Mount Nisir
- 36. CONCLUSIONS • The Differences don’t destroy the striking similarities • An early tragedy of the Flood effected every people and culture • Both Hebrew and extra-biblical tradition about the Flood agreed on the basic facts • The themes of divine judgment, righteousness and eternal life were part of the worldview of Mesopotamia
- 37. EXPLANATION OF FLOOD PARALLELS 1. The Genesis Account is drawn from the Babylonian or Sumerian tradition. 2. The Babylonian Gilgamesh is drawn from the Genesis narrative. 3. These traditions arose spontaneously. 4. The two accounts go back to a common source. WHAT ARE OUR CHOICES?
- 38. 2 PETER 1:19 We have also a more sure word of Prophecy; whereunto you do well that you take heed, as to a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
- 39. ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE TEXT OF SCRIPTURE 1. Clarifies Scripture 2. Confirms Scripture 3. Complements Scripture
- 40. WHAT IS THE PLACE OF ARCHAEOLOGY? • Archaeology CANNOT prove the Bible. Spiritual truth is of such a nature that it cannot be proven or disproved by the material discoveries of archaeology. The truths of the Bible do not need proving; they are self-evident. • The net effect of archaeology has been to support the general trustworthiness and substantial historicity of the biblical tradition where data is available
- 41. FLOOD LAYER LEONARD WOOLLEY UR EXCAVATION
Editor's Notes
- Welcome Prayer requests Prayer review
- Steve Whitfield asked me about the Rosetta Stone
- The Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek. Because it presents essentially the same text in all three scripts (with some minor differences between them), it provided the key to the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.
- MS 2855 is a small oblong tablet inscribed on both faces and the top, bottom and left edges with twenty-nine lines of early Old Babylonian cuneiform script. The main content is a version of the antediluvian king list, but this is followed by a damaged passage, written in Akkadian and in a smaller script, which remains partly undeciphered. As understood here, it ends with a statement enjoining the addressee not to stop reciting the text, which suggests that the preceding list had some function in scribal ritual or academic oratory.
- 2 fairly complete lists
- The Weld-Blundell Prism is a baked clay "prism" with four equal sides, each about 20cm high and 9cm wide. An unknown scribe recorded the names of the rulers of Akkad and Sumer (today's central and southern Iraq) in cuneiform. It contains the most complete surviving list of the Sumerian kings from c. 3200-1800 BCE. The king list begins with a list of kings who ruled "before the flood." The flood itself is described in the prism: "The Flood swept over [the land]. After the Flood had swept over [the land] and kingship had descended from heaven [for a second time], Kish became the seat of Kingship..." The genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 closely parallel this list. Additionally, the list parallels the Book of Genesis by ascribing extremely long life-spans to the rulers before the flood and more conventional life-spans to the rulers who lived after it. The prism was discovered in Larsa, Iraq, in 1922, in an expedition led by Herbert Weld Blundell, an English traveler and archaeologist. It currently resides in the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology (University of Oxford)
- In Genesis 4-5, cities are associated with Cain. Genesis 4:17 “Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch.” Genesis 10:8-10 “8 Cush was the father[c] of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD.” 10 The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in[d] Shinar.[e] 11 From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir,[f] Calah 12 and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah—which is the great city.”
- LIST OF KINGS AND CITIES FROM BEFORE THE FLOOD IN ERIDU: ALULIM RULED AS KING 28,800 YEARS. ELALGAR RULED 43,200 YEARS. ERIDU WAS ABANDONED. KINGSHIP WAS TAKEN TO BAD-TIBIRA. AMMILU'ANNA THE KING RULED 36,000 YEARS. ENMEGALANNA RULED 28,800 YEARS. DUMUZI RULED 28,800 YEARS. BAD-TIBIRA WAS ABANDONED. KINGSHIP WAS TAKEN TO LARAK. EN-SIPA-ZI-ANNA RULED 13,800 YEARS. LARAK WAS ABANDONED. KINGSHIP WAS TAKEN TO SIPPAR. MEDURANKI RULED 7,200 YEARS. SIPPAR WAS ABANDONED. KINGSHIP WAS TAKEN TO SHURUPPAK. UBUR-TUTU RULED 36,000 YEARS. TOTAL: 8 KINGS, THEIR YEARS: 222,600
- Here is a king list from creation down to the present to establish the legitimacy of a succession of kings.
- What Ashurbanipal did was order his people to go out throughout the kingdom and collect all the important books and house them on one place and one of the books he collected was the Enuma Elish which dates back to 1700 BC and the time of Hammurabi. There were three great libraries, Alexandria (3rd Century BC), Pergamum (2nd Century BC) and Ephesus (Library of Celsus) in 110 AD.
- Gilgamesh controlling a snake and a lion (stone relief from the Palace of Sargon II at Khorsabad, Iraq, c.725 BC now located at the Louvre, Paris)
- Listed in the Weld-Blundell Prism as the King of Uruk
- In 1853, the archaeologist Austen Henry Layard and his team were excavating the palace library of the ancient Assyrian capital Nineveh. A particularly rich find was the library of Ashurbanipal, last great king of Assyria: in the 1850s, British archaeologist Austin Henry Layard and his Iraqi associate, Hormuzd Rassam, unearthed it in the ruins of Nineveh. They shipped 100,000 tablets and fragments home to the British Museum; gradually scholars began to piece them together and decipher the ancient texts.Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/gilgamesh_side.html#ixzz2JnT5JZSz
- British archaeologist Henry Creswicke Rawlinson [1810-1895] is known primarily as a linguist of ancient languages, and is considered by some the father of cuneiform. He started his career out with the British East India company and was sent to Persia in 1833, where he took up transcribing and deciphering Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonia scripts. His archaeological career included excavations at Nineveh and other Assyrian and Babylonian sites. Henry Rawlinson (1810-1895 CE) deciphered the language and translated it. Rawlinson's translations of Mesopotamian texts were first presented to the Royal Asiatic Society of London in 1837 Ce and again in 1839 CE. In 1846 CE he worked with the archaeologist Austin Henry Layard in his excavation of Nineveh and was responsible for the earliest translations from the library of Ashurbanipal discovered at that site. Along with other Assyriologists (among them, George Smith, T.G. Pinches and Edwin Norris) Rawlinson spearheaded the development of Mesopotamian language studies and his Cuneiform Inscriptions of Ancient Babylon and Assyria, along with his other works, became the standard reference on the subject following their publication in the 1860's CE and remain respected scholarly works into the modern day.
- Gilgamesh - King of Uruk, the strongest of men, and the personification of all human virtues. A brave warrior, fair judge, and ambitious builder, Gilgamesh surrounds the city of Uruk with magnificent walls and erects its glorious ziggurats, or temple towers. Two-thirds god and one-third mortal, Gilgamesh is undone by grief when his beloved companion Enkidu dies, and by despair at the prospect of his own extinction. He travels to the ends of the Earth in search of answers to the mysteries of life and death. Read an in-depth analysis of Gilgamesh. Enkidu - Companion and friend of Gilgamesh. Hairy-bodied and brawny, Enkidu was raised by animals. Even after he joins the civilized world, he retains many of his undomesticated characteristics. Enkidu looks much like Gilgamesh and is almost his physical equal. He aspires to be Gilgamesh’s rival but instead becomes his soul mate. The gods punish Gilgamesh and Enkidu by giving Enkidu a slow, painful, inglorious death for killing the demon Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven. Read an in-depth analysis of Enkidu. Shamhat - The temple prostitute who tames Enkidu by seducing him away from his natural state. Though Shamhat’s power comes from her sexuality, it is associated with civilization rather than nature. She represents the sensuous refinements of culture—the sophisticated pleasures of lovemaking, food, alcohol, music, clothing, architecture, agriculture, herding, and ritual. Utnapishtim - A king and priest of Shurrupak, whose name translates as “He Who Saw Life.” By the god Ea’s connivance, Utnapishtim survived the great deluge that almost destroyed all life on Earth by building a great boat that carried him, his family, and one of every living creature to safety. The gods granted eternal life to him and his wife. Utnapishtim’s Wife - An unnamed woman who plays an important role in the story. Utnapishtim’s wife softens her husband toward Gilgamesh, persuading him to disclose the secret of the magic plant called How-the-Old-Man-Once-Again-Becomes-a-Young-Man. Urshanabi - The guardian of the mysterious “stone things.” Urshanabi pilots a small ferryboat across the Waters of Death to the Far Away place where Utnapishtim lives. He loses this privilege when he accepts Gilgamesh as a passenger, so he returns with him to Uruk. The Hunter - Also called the Stalker. The hunter discovers Enkidu at a watering place in the wilderness and plots to tame him. Partial List of Important Deities and Demons
- The Story Gilgamesh, its king of Uruk, being two-thirds god, was driven by the relentless energy of divinity. Resting neither day or night, he took young men to labor on grandiose buildings, and carried brides off from their weddings. ("He is the first. The husband comes after.") Hearing the people's complaints, the gods told Aruru, goddess of creation, to make a match for him, to divert his energies. She fashioned a wild man, huge, hairy and strong, who roamed the plains with the gazelle. His name was Enkidu. When word of Enkidu reached Uruk, a temple prostitute was sent to seduce him, so that his animal companions would shun him. After this, she "made him a man," teaching him human speech, and how to eat human food, drink alcohol, dress his hair, and wear clothes. Because of his strength, Enkidu was asked to stop Gilgamesh from abducting a bride and barred his way. They wrestled until Enkidu was thrown, but Gilgamesh acknowledged he had won because he was semi-divine: "In truth, you are my equal." Here began their friendship. Their first exploit was to go to the Cedar Forest to kill its giant guardian, Humbaba. Their second was to kill the Bull of Heaven (drought personified) sent because Gilgamesh rejected advances by Ishtar, goddess of love. The gods decreed that for the two slayings one of the friends must die. The lot fell on Enkidu. The Gate of the Cedar Forest had seemed so beautiful to Enkidu that he could not hack it down, and instead pushed it open with his hand. But there was an enchantment on it, which blasted the hand, so that a fever spread from it and he dreamed of dying. He cursed the prostitute and the Forest Gate, and on the twelfth day fell silent. For seven days and nights Gilgamesh would not give him up for burial, and only when a maggot fell from his nose accepted his death. Knowing that, like Enkidu, he would die. Gilgamesh set out to find Utnapishtim, the one man saved by the gods from The Flood. Making him immortal, they had placed him with his wife in Dilmun, the Garden of the Gods. Gilgamesh would ask Utnapishtim how to become immortal himself. His quest led him through a gate guarded by Scorpion People with flaming aureoles into Mashu, the mountain into which the sun passes at night. He journeyed in darkness before coming out in the Garden of the Sun, where Shamash walked at evening. The sun god said his quest would fail: All mortals must die. Next he encountered Siduri, Woman of the Vine, beside her house making wine for the gods. She urged him to live from day to day, taking pleasure in food, wine, and the love of wife and children, "for love was granted men as well as death." Seeing him undeterred, Siduri directed him to the Images of Stone, near which he would find Urshanabi, Utnapishtim's boatman. To reach Dilmun, one must cross the deep, bitter Waters of Death, and the Images kept the ferryman safe on the crossing. In a fit of temper, Gilgamesh broke the Images of Stone and, when he found the boatman, Urshanabi said that it was now too dangerous to cross. However, he had Gilgamesh cut long poles from the woods, and they launched the boat on the sea. When they reached the Waters of Death that lay between it and Dilmun, Gilgamesh punted the boat along, dropping each pole before his hand touched the fatal Waters. Reaching Dilmun, Gilgamesh told Utnapishtim why he had come there. Utnapishtim said first he must pass a test: not sleeping for six days and seven nights. But Gilgamesh was exhausted by his journey and he who had once needed no rest now fell into a profound slumber. Every day, Utnapishtim's wife stood a fresh loaf of bread beside him. When Utnapishtim woke him, he saw six of them and despaired. Utnapishtim now dismissed him, together with Urshanabi, who, having ferried a living man over the Waters, had broken the rule of the gods. Utnapishtim's wife persuaded him to give Gilgamesh something in return for his suffering. So Utnapishtim told him of a place in the sea where grew the Flower of Youth, which would make the old young again. Reaching the spot, Gilgamesh tied stones on his feet and jumped into the water. Down to the bottom he sank and, despite its thorns, plucked the flower. Cutting off the stones, he surfaced in triumph, telling Urshanabi he would give it to the old of Uruk to eat, and eventually eat it himself. But on their homeward voyage, they went ashore to rest and Gilgamesh bathed in a nearby pool, leaving the Flower of Youth on the bank. Deep in the pool lay a serpent that snuffed the fragrance of the flower, rose up, devoured it, and grew young again (sloughing its skin as snakes have ever since). Then Gilgamesh wept. He had failed to win everlasting life, and with the Flower of Youth in his grasp lost even that. But presently he said they should continue to Uruk and he would show Urshanabi his fine city. There at least his labors had not been fruitless.