In the scope of our examination and study of ancient Babylonia, we will look at certain cities, as well, what we will call, the greater ancient Babylonian plain. It is fascinating study to discover the custom, religion, accomplishments, lifestyles, mindsets and advance knowledge spanning as far back as five thousand years.
Erech, the ancient city founded by Nimrod, sometimes known as Uruk, or Warka, presents a phenomenal achievement of building ability. This city housed the royal residence of the hero king Gilgamish of Babylonia. Erech was a highly fortified city whose hero rule’s accomplishments were viewed as mighty and godlike by his people. Gilgamish, known as one of the earliest heroes, lived very near to the time of the flood of Noah.
Excavations in these regions of Babylonia began in 1852. Early finds unearthed 50 foot high brick walls encircling the city and the beautifully ornamented mosaic parathion temple which included a number of pyramidal ziggurats. Thousands of Neo-Babylonian tablets were found, some of which were clay envelopes. Later excavations penetrated down, confirming chronology to nearly 4000 B.C. and unearthing the remains of a wall dating back to 3000 B.C.
It is fascinating, however, to know that over five hundred tablets written in the very ancient form of “pictograph writing” confirmed the religious beliefs of ancient Babylonia. Our study shows only two deities, of which one preceded the other: the first being the external self existent God, and the other being the fallen prince of the world.
Nineveh was famous for being the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire. Nineveh was three hundred miles north of Babylon. This ancient region, rich with similarities of rule and religion, must be included in our consideration of the greater Babylonian plain. Situated across the river Tigris on the eastern bank, the ancient Nineveh would later become known as the “robber city” overrunning other countries to enrich itself. With its ancient and colorful history, a wealth of treasures would begin to be discovered during the 1853 excavations. The great Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal’s palace, was uncovered there; and the beautiful bas-relief, that depicted the king, standing in a chariot, about to start on a hunting expedition. Hunting of wild animals for sport was the practice of the heroes throughout that period in antiquity. His attendants were handing him the necessary weapons for the chase. Two high vaulted rooms were also uncovered, stacked high with priceless tablets. These large clay tablets were part of his royal library. The pursuit of knowledge and learning – mastery and perfection – has proven to be a major driving force of these ancient peoples. This great king must have been taught to read and write in various languages as one of his inscriptions read, “I, Ashur-Bani-Pal, within the palace learned the wisdom of Nebu….the entire art of writing on clay tablets. I made myself master of the various kinds of writing…..I read the beautiful clay tablets from Sumer and the Acadian writing, which is hard to master. I had the joy of reading inscriptions on stone before the time before the flood.”
An impression of the god-king Gilgamesh, flanked by two man headed, winged beings, subduing two lions.
This Prince’s scholarly pursuit included literature, the study of the scribes, and an insatiable desire for enlightenment. He sent scribes throughout the regions of the Ancient Babylonian (Ashur, Babylon, Cuthah, Nippor, Akkad, Erech). He collected and copied clay books of astrology, history, grammar, geography, literature, law, and medicine, with letters, poems, oracles, incantations, chronicles, and much more.
His library contained somewhere near one hundred thousand copies, making it one of the most valuable in antiquity. Great gallery rooms where the library was found contained a picture gallery – this was only a small portion of this brilliant monarch’s royal palace. Interestingly, a later find in Nineveh corresponds with this find; it was another portion of a tablet completing the Chaldean account of the Deluge. Later the Creation tablets were also found and published under the title the, The Chaldean Account of Genesis. Many resemblances of the biblical accounts of the flood were duplicated; constituting too many scholars’ witness to dispute that such a disaster did happen.
A large collection if ancient cuneiform tablets. Included among them is the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” one of the oldest written works known to man. It details the supposedly divine origins and amazingly strength of Gilgamesh.
This Assyrian king was a contender for mastery of learning. Their science, religion, culture, warfare, and consistent willingness to contest for greater mastery of these areas, presented us with a complete concept of the mindsets of these rulers. This wealth of knowledge was handed down from the earliest post-deluvian generations.
From the ancient greater Babylonian plain and the region of Armenia we located the earliest civilization in possession of advanced knowledge. Before the formation of the old dynasties and empires, the inhabitants of that region were in possession of information transferred to them and recorded in their history. The mindset of those who would be accredited with princely titles such as giants, god-kings, heroes, mighty men and mighty hunters, exceeded their physical strengths, making them seem superhuman. The path to becoming a prince was becoming the by-product of their constant pursuit of learning and embracing the religion and the sciences of the day. The driving force behind their ambitions to rule would lead some to migrate from this fertile great Babylonian plain, and would leave an unmistakable mark in history, undoubtedly affecting societies to come.
Hunting lions was the preferred sport of Assyrian royalty. The king most known for this dangerous sport was Ashurbanipal.
Pezron, who wrote The Antiquities of Nations particular to Celtae or Gauls, records what I believe to be a great wealth of historical, chronological, and etymological discoveries. These discoveries are consistent with the records of Scripture we will view regarding Canaan, and they are unknown to the proponents of Greek and Roman mythology. I believe that Pezron, a Doctor in Divinity, as well as the wealth of historians in agreement with the Holy Scriptures, help to verify the biblical cannon and its validity both in the Old and the New Covenants.
Hunting lions was considered an excellent way to show one immense strength and skill. Adult male lions, often exceeding 550 pound in weight and 8 feet in length from nose to rear, can often reach upwards of 10 feet in height when standing upright on their back legs.
Pezron traces the posterity of Gomer, in agreement with Josephus, and as recorded in the tenth chapter of Genesis; documenting historically many of their accomplishments and achievements as titan giant which predated the time of Abraham. This migration, as recorded by Pezron’s antiquity, is as follows: “For you must know, that in the first age of the Postdiluvian World, several of the Chaldeans retired into the Mountains of Armenia. There the more easily to contemplate the stars, and to live with the more safely from the invasions of other people. Auguries, Divinations, Magick, and Enchantments, were then much in use among most Nations of the World; and they undertook nothing of any considerable Importance, without consulting their Diviners, and the like: Its well known that he Chaldeans in those Times were looked upon to be the greatest Masters, in these Over-curious and Diabolical Sciences.
The sacae, who were the their first Neighbors were not wanting to become Disciples, and were, if I may so say, initiated by them into all Mysteries of Superstition and Iniquity. It was therefore in the Chaldean Schools, that they chiefly learnt all that which was most Refined and Secret in those Prophane and Dangerous Arts. Hence it was that they learned to take their nearest Relations even their own Sisters to be their Wives, and to make this Criminal, not to say, Abominable and Incestuous Alliance, a Point of Honour and Religion also: And it was from the same Principles of this dangerous Doctrine, that some Ages after the Sacick or Titan Princes, I mean Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter, Married their own Sisters: It was fro hence they learnt, as I may say to stigmatize their Bodies, that is to imprint certain Figures, Marks, or Characters upon them, whereby they were Consecrated, not to the Service of their Imaginary Deities, but to the worship of Devils, and the Prince of Darkness, that seduced them: Lastly to pass over many other Particulars, it was in this School that they learnt to inspect the Entrails of Beasts, and perhaps of Men too, in order to have their more Important Divinations, the more confirmed by the Fibres or Lobes of the Liver; This the Grecians in their Language called Jecur Inspiscere, or Jecur Consulere, that is, to consult, or rather by way of Divination to inspect the Liver; It’s so certain that these Sorts of Divination came from the Chaldeans, that the Famous Nabuchadonosor (Nebuchardnezzar), King of Chaldeans and Babyon, made a Use of it before he laid siege to Jerusalem. For being came to the Meeting of Two Ways, One of which led to Judea, and the other to the Country Ammon, and not knowing which Way he should go; the Scripture says, that beside other Divinations, he consulted the Liver of Beasts (Eze 21:21) and there upon without anymore ado determined to go to Judea, in order to destroy Jerusalem to which he believed his Gods had directed him.”
An ancient skull that has been trepanned, a medical procedure in which a hole is drilled in the skull. The bone growth and regeneration show that the patient survived this brain surgery over 5,000 years ago.
Continuing with Pezron, it is clear that he addresses a time in history that sheds tremendous light on the activities of these titan giants – specifically during the time of Abraham. He factually acknowledges that these titans exceeded others in strength and bulk of body, and ruled over all the earth. The prophet Isaiah informs us also that these giants were ancient masters of the world, and that they drove kings of nations from their thrones. (Later we will address Isaiah chapter fourteen: Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar). Quoting Pezron, “The titans therefore were not a fabulous and imaginary Race of Men, tho’ the Greeks disguised the history of them with fables; but they were a potent people and great Soldiers, descended from the Giants, who made so much Noise all the World over.
Besides all this we are to add, that they were much addicted Magic, Auguries, Divinations, Satanical Delusions and Inchantments; the greatest Persons among them, viz. the Priests, Sacrifices, Kings themselves, and Princes of the Blood, were the most of any inclined to these Prophane and Diabolical Curiosities. Then it was that the Devil, who is called the Prince of the World, seduced almost the whole Earth, keeping the Hearts and Minds of Men and Bondage. This wretched Dominion lasted too long, and was not destroy’d but by the Power and Cross of Christ. Hence one of the Fathers of the Church (Euseb. Perp. 1.2.c:5) who had narrowly inspected into these Tyrants, Magicians, and Enchanters in the Number of their Kings, and afterwards of their Gods.”
JOSEPHUS CONCERNING ALEXANDER THE GREAT
Now Alexander when he taken Gaza, made haste to go up to Jerusalem; and Jaddua the high priest, when he heard that, was in an agony and under terror, as now knowing how he should meet the Macedonians, since the king was displeased at his foregoing disobedience. He therefore ordained that the people should make supplications and should join with him in offering sacrifices to God, whom he sought to protect that nation, and to deliver them from the perils that were coming upon them; whereupon God warned him in a dream, which came upon him after he had offered sacrifice, that he should take courage, and adorn the city, and open the gates; that the rest should appear in white garments, but that he and the priests should meet Alexander in the habits proper to their order, without the dread of any ill consequences, which the providence of God would prevent. Upon which, when he rose from his sleep, he greatly rejoiced; and declared to all the warning he had received from God. According to which the dream he acted entirely, and so waited for the coming of Alexander the Great.
Alexander sought supernatural help from many gods. He is shown here with the horns of Amun, the Egyptian sun god.
And when he understood that he was not far from the city, he went out in procession with the priests, and the multitude of citizens, the procession was venerable and the manner of it different from that of other nations. It reached to a place called Sapha; which names, translated into Greek, signifies ‘a prospect’, for you have thence a prospect of Jerusalem and of the temple; and when the Phoenicians and the Chaldeans that followed him, thought they should have the liberty to plunder the city, and torment the high priests to death, which the king’s displeasure fairly promised them, the very reverse of it happened; Alexander, when he saw the multitude at a distance, in white garments, while the priests stood clothed with fine linen, and the high priest in purple and scarlet clothing, with his mitre on his head, having the golden plate whereon the ‘name of God’ was engraved, he approached by himself, and adored that name, and first saluted the high priest, The Jews also did all together with one voice, salute Alexander, and encompass him about; whereupon the kings of Syria and the rest were surprised at what Alexander had done, and supposed him disordered in his mind. However, Parmenio alone went up to him, and asked him how it came to pass that, when all others him, he should adore the high priest of the Jews? To whom he replied, “ I did not adore him, but that God who hath, honored him with his high priesthood; for I saw this very person in a dream, in this very habit, when I was at Dios in Macedonia, who, when I was considering with myself how I might obtain the dominion of Asia, exhorted me to make no delay, but boldly to pass over the sea thither, for that he would conduct my army, and would me dominion over the Persians; whence it is, that having seen no other in that habit, and now seeing this person in it, and remembering that vision, and the exhortation which I had in my dream, I believe that I bring this army under divine conduct, and destroy the power of the Persians, and that all things according to what is in my own mind.
“Alexander the Great in the Temple of Jerusalem” by Sebastiano Conca
Alexander offered sacrifices to God, according to the high priests directions. And when the book of Daniel was shown him, wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks, would destroy the empire of Persia. Alexander was glad and knew it was him.
- Flavius Josephus
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