<< Paul Seely wrote:
>The contrast between our view of the Godhead and the Accadians' view is far
>greater than any similarity. In fact I wonder if there is any similarity
at
>all. Although at one point in Mesopotamian history a triad dominated the
>universe, there were always other important gods as well and hundreds,
indeed
>thousands of lesser gods.
Well, not "always."
Although it is impossible to be sure due to the scarcity of historical
evidence
prior to 2,000 BC, the Accadian "trinity" at the very beginning consisted
of "ilu"
the father-god in heaven, which is the root of the Canaanite "el" that we
see in
elohim and El Shadai - it is the Hebrew word for God. Ilu also is the root
of "the
Islamic "allah." The second was "Ea," possibly an early form of "Emmanuel,"
and Enlil which means lord or king of the "air," "breath" or "spirit." It
is hard
to miss the similarity
>And at other points in Mesopotamian history the
>triad was not dominant. Most importantly, these gods were all separate and
>different personalties not sharing any common center. For example, one god
of
>the triad, Anu, was angry with another god of the triad, Ea, for warning a
>man about the coming flood.
By the time of these writings, "ilu" had been corrupted to "Anu" under
pressure
of the Sumerian "An." And indeed, the Sumerian pantheon of 3,000 to 4,000
gods had clearly rubbed off on the Semitic Accadians. BTW, followers of Anu
were called "Anunnaki." Not gods, not human, the word still survives today
as
"angel."
>>
In what ancient document do you find this supposed original Akkadian trinity
with a father-god called "ilu" which was later "corrupted to 'Anu' under
pressure of the Sumerian 'An"? In all of the documents I have seen "ilu" is
the common Akkadian word for "god" and is applied to Enlil, Ea and other gods
as freely as to An. I have never seen it used as the original name of Anu.
And in what document do you find that the Akkadians were not polytheists
before coming under the influence of Sumerian polytheism? All of the Akkadian
documents I have seen are polytheistic.
And what evidence do you have that the Anunnaki were not gods? Every time I
have seen them mentioned, they are gods.
Until proven otherwise, I must regard all of these conclusions as nothing
more than speculation designed to support your pre-Adamic theory.
Paul S.