What's unusual about this one, though, as far as modern thinking goes, is the depiction of Adam and Eve sitting by a tree, about to cut its fruit (see the sickle in Adam's hand), with a snake rearing up in the background.
How do we know its Adam and Eve? Oh please!
Why is it difficult for modern thinkers to accept this Seal? They would prefer it if Adam and Eve were mythological figures, but here they are on an official government Seal of ancient Sumer.
Furthermore, this is exactly what you'd expect to see immediately Post-Flood, the Bible being true:
Important historical events placed on government documents.
For example, here in New Zealand we have bank-notes (dollar bills) with pictures of famous people like Sir Edmund Hillary, conqueror of Everest, and other's less famous but all real people.
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And then there's the unbaked clay Cuneiform Flood Tablet:
This was found in the lower levels of the Temple Library at Nippur, Sumer, which was buried by the Elamite invasion in 2100 BC.
It is a rendering of God giving instructions to Ut-Na-Pishtim about building the Life-Saving-Boat, otherwise known as the ark. It is in Akkadian, or Semetic Babylonian.
Ut-Na-Pishtim, we learn from it, is the title of its captain, not his name. His name is Noah, as we know.
Pre-Elamite Cuneiform Tablet describing the Flood
CBM 13532
Hermann Vollrath Hilprecht, the Archaeologist who recovered the Tablet, along with 17,000 other tablets and fragments during 4 years of digs at the Temple Library Nippur in the 1890's, translated it into English after cleaning off the crust of 3 millenia. He no sooner published his translation than he was fired from his job and effectively exiled from all academic work.
How similar to the Bible is the text on the cuneiform Tablet? Incredibly similar: The text's word for 'Ark' is similar to the Semitic word meaning Ark. Hilprecht was afraid to use the word 'Ark' in his translation, due to the problems it would cause him in his job, so he translated it 'Houseboat'.
None of his circumspection did any good however, and he lost his job. Hilprecht's translation has never been refuted though, and still stands as the best translation of the Akkadian Cuneiform Flood Tablet dated 2,100 BC.
What is the text?:
Line...
1 .....-sha...... shi-il .....i- ..... -ka
(thee)
2 ........a-pa-ash-......shar.....
(the confines of the heaven and earth I will loosen)
3...ka -la ni-si is-ten-is i-za-bat...
( [a deluge I will make] and it will sweep all men away together:)
4 ........-ti la-am a-bu-bi wa-si e......
([but seek thou l] ife before the deluge cometh forth)
5 .....-a ni ma-la i-ba-as-su-u lu-in ub-bu-ku lu-pu-ut-tu hu-ru-su
(...[For over all living beings] as many as there are I will bring overthrow, destruction annihilation)
6........elippu ra-be-tu bi - ni -ma
(...............build a great ship and)
7 ...ga-be e gab-bi lu bi-nu-uz za
(............total height shall be its structure)
8 .....si-i lu magurgurram ba-bil lu na-at rat na-pas-tim
(....it shall be a house boat carrying what has been saved of life.)
9 ....-ri...zu lu-da dan-na zu- ul- lil
(...with a strong deck cover (it) )
10 .......te-ip pu- su
(...( the ship) which thou shalt make..)
11.....-lam...u-ma-am si-rim is-sur sa-me-e
(...(into it br)ing the beasts of the field, the birds of heaven..)
12 .........ku-um mi- ni...
( ...( and the creeping things, two of everything) instead of a number,)
13 .......u kin- ta ru...
( ...and the family)
14 .......u...
( and..)
Reference for all material: Bill Cooper. The authenticity of the book of Genesis.
http://www.britishmuseum.org/
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/a/adam_and_eve_cylinder_seal.aspx
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/ACF2576.0005.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/manuscripts/cottonmss/cottonmss.html
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/englit/beowulf/
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ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that you say "How come we've never heard of it?" because curators at the world's museums have written endlessly about these finds. I think you may just be reading the wrong books and following the wrong Twitter feeds.
ReplyDeleteGranted, they often say that it was the Hebrews who borrowed these epic legends from the Sumerians and Babylonians and not the other way around (due to the fact that the oldest texts of the Bible are the Dead Sea Scrolls which are only 2000 years old, and the Babylonian sources go back as far as 4100 years).
However, if you are interested in Biblical Archaeology and/or Assyriology, you really should try to read more widely, because you would have heard of it.
The Epic of Atrahasis and the Epic of Gilgamesh (tablet XI) are both on full and permanent display at the British Museum for example. These clay tablets both tell us about the Creation of humans and the Great Flood, and with surprising similarities to the later biblical accounts.
ReplyDeleteThere is no conspiracy to hide this information.
I salute you Ste, for your conversational and interesting comment, the first in seven years. Presumably you have found no other internet link to these artifacts, otherwise you wouldn't have bothered posting here. I read about them in Bill O'Connor's the authenticity of the Bible, which I recommend. It's a bit hoity-toity for twitter, isn't it?
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