Leolaia (jehovahs-witness.net)
Sumerian banquet seal (2200-2100 BC): snake or naga (Gen. 3:15), Tree of Life (date palm), Asherah, and the God of the Bible. The snake eats the plant of eternal life, from the Huluppu Tree, in the Gilgamesh Epic, sloughing its skin and gaining "immortality." [Dropping its body and gaining access to rebirth in heavenly realms by learning right from wrong?]
The Garden of Eden narrative in Genesis 2-3 (J) is generally thought to have a mythological background, and its Sumerian and Akkadian parallels have been widely noted: the resemblance between the Tale of Adapa and the story of Adam and Eve's deception regarding the death-dealing fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the story of Adam's creation and life with the animals and the Tale of Enkidu from the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Edenic blessedness described in the Tale of Enmerkar, and so forth.
The Canaanite and Phoenician parallels however are not noted as often -- though these would be more pertinent to the native Judean context of the Eden narrative. This post will explore some of these parallels in an attempt to trace the mythological background of the Eden story, which is complex and multi-layered.
Bas relief of Christian Mother Goddess Asherah, consort of YHWH
GARDEN OF EDEN ON THE MOUNTAIN OF GOD
[Mt. Sumeru is the Mountain of the Gods in ancient Indian tradition, but that same tradition is found in nearly every religion using different names, such as Mt. Olympus.] According to Ezekiel 28:13-14, the Garden of Eden was located in "the holy mountain of God" or rather, "the gods" (hr qds 'lhym) [since in the Bible "God" is plural, the gods, a fact ignored or glossed over by monotheists].
ASHERAH: THE TREE OF LIFE
In the Kuntillet 'Arjud and Khirbet el-Kom inscriptions, Asherah is named with Yahweh -- probably as his consort. [The "holy spirit" was originally the divine feminine (
northernway.org).]
In Canaanite myth, Asherah (Ug. Athirat) was the consort of El [one of the gods of the Bible], the creator god, and she begat the seventy lesser gods [revealing the polytheistic roots of Christianity], the sons of El. Asherah became Yahweh's consort through an identification of El with Yahweh (seen throughout the Old Testament).
In Canaanite texts, Asherah is called the "Mother of All" and one of her titles was qnyt 'ilm "Creator of the Gods."
It is interesting that qnh is an unusual word in Hebrew for "create" as it usually means "acquire." (El, in contrast, was called bny bnwt "Creator of Created Things" in the Ugaritic texts).
The notion of Eve as a creator goddess also appears in muted form in Genesis 3:20, 4:1 where Eve is called "the mother of all living." And Eve says after the birth of Cain, "I have created (qnh) a man with the help of Yahweh," [suggesting that the nature of this god was more in line with other religions, more extraterrestrial deity than unimaginable divinity] employing the same verb as applied to Asherah in the Ugaritic texts.
The latter quote is also very similar to a statement regarding the Akkadian creator goddess Aruru (= Sumerian Ninhursag): Aruru zi-ir a-mi-lu-ti it-ti-shu ib-ta-nu "Aruru, with the help of [Marduk], created the seed of mankind" (KIB, vi. I, 40).
Another clue that Eve's identity originally was not as it is given in the story can be found in the name: Hebrew
chwwh being related to Aramaic
chwyh and Phoenician
chwt "snake" [suggesting that these beings were
nagas conducting genetic experiments]. As we shall soon see,
Chawat appears in a Phoenician inscription as one of the names of
Elat "Goddess," that is, Asherah.
It is in Proverbs where we meet Asherah as Wisdom personified. She appears as a creator goddess in Proverbs 8:22-31. And the following chapter describes a banquet that Wisdom hosts in her palace (Proverbs 9:1-6). In the Ugaritic texts, we read similarly of Asherah and her consort El hosting banquets in their mountain palace [vimana, platform, mansion, spacecraft] (cf. KTU 1.1 IV 26-35). More>>
Sumerian banquet seal (2200-2100 BC): snake or naga (Gen. 3:15), Tree of Life (date palm), Asherah, and the God of the Bible. The snake eats the plant of eternal life, from the Huluppu Tree, in the Gilgamesh Epic, sloughing its skin and gaining "immortality." [Dropping its body and gaining access to rebirth in heavenly realms by learning right from wrong?]
Your article is generally interesting and informative but it does contain some errors. Firstly, a Sumerian seal from the end of the third millennium BCE could not possibly portray the "god of the Bible" or Asherah. The presence of the common, stylized Mesopotamian tree symbol with a snake and two seated figures is interesting, of course. Secondly, the snake in Gilgamesh did not eat from the Hulappu tree - you are confusing the story of the snake that steals the magic boxthorn-like plant with the Sumerian poem, Bilgames and the Netherworld. Thirdly, the available evidence that Asherah was YHWHs consort is very limited and somewhat ambiguous. I personally believe that this is most likely to be the case, but the evidence is not particularly strong (check the work of Steve Wiggins for fairly well balanced criticism of overenthusiastic claims). Finally, there is no clear connection between the portrayal of Wisdom in Proverbs and Asherah mythology. Despite my negative comments, I also believe that there is likely to be a connection between the Eden story and Asherah worship. Although I feel that the fundamental influence is Mesopotamian (specifically the story of Enkidu and Shamhat), if the story of sin and expulsion is a parable of the Babylonian exile then Asherah worship (as the sin) fits perfectly with other similar explanations offered in the Hebrew Bible.
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