the Ashmolean tablet, En-me-dur-an-na. Zimmern, who originally made the identification, said that the name Enmeduranki was pronounced Evvedoranki.30 Evved, or Eved of course, suggests the Hebrew 'Ebhed, so commonly found in names. All the other names in the Berossus list are very probably Semitic, and it seems that this is the same. The Greek digamma having been lost at this time, I have, therefore, proposed that Eued represents the Hebrew 'Eved "servant"; and that the name be tentatively read, 'Eved-Or akh (see infra). ....... This name has 8. 'Amempsinos ('Aμeuvos, Amemphsinus). been generally regarded to be a corruption of Amêl-Sin. Hommel and Sayce translate it into Mutu-sha-Arkhi, “man of the moongod," or into Metu-sa-el, "man of the God." The identification with Amêl-Sin seems possible; but not .. síb-zi-an-na, in the Ashmolean tablet.32 It seems to me síb following the fifth name of the Ashmolean tablet, namely, ......-zi-síb is probably not to be read "shepherd," but is part of the name, and that in some way it may represent the name 'Amempsinos. Moreover, I cannot follow the efforts made to find it reproduced in the Biblical list of patriarchs. 9. 'Ardatās, 'Otiartās ('Apdarns, 'Driaprns, Otiartes). of the scholars have proposed to change the name Otiartēs to Opartēs, in order to make it equivalent to Ubar-Tu-Tu, who is called the father of Atra-khasis in the Gilgamesh story of the deluge, and where he is said to be from the city Shuruppak. Since the reading of the ideogram Tu-Tu, in the above name, is not known, and for other reasons, I prefer to hold this identification in abeyAlexander Polyhistor, who has given us the best reproduction of the Berossus deluge story, hands the ninth name down as 30 See KAT p. 532. 31 Sayce, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch. 1915 p. 10. Ωτιαρτης, "See Langdon, Jour. Royal As. Soc., 1923, 251. Most 'Ardatās. Langdon's recent identification of 'Ardatas with the conjectural reading Arad-gin (Aradda or Araddagin), I cannot follow. 'Ardatās reproduces perfectly the name of a city Ardata, situated along the coast of the Mediterranean. This name in the Amarna letters, is written Ar-da-ta, Ar-da-at, and once El-da-ta, showing that Ar very probably represents the name of a deity. Since the well-known name Arwad, in the Amarna letters, is written Ur(Uru)-wada (104:42), and also Ar-wada (101:13, etc.), as well as for other reasons, Ar, perhaps, originally 'wr, seems to be a pronunciation of the deity's name, Ur. We need only recall here that the ancient Babylonian scribe has given us the reading Ari as an equivalent to Amurri (or Uri). Moreover, it seems reasonable to propose that the name 'Ardatēs in Berossus' list, is a personal name identical with the name of the city Ar-data. The element data in personal names of the early period, is also known.32 It is even found in the name of Annādōtos, mentioned by Berossus as living in the same era. 10. Xisuthros Εισουθρος, Σισουθρος, Σισιθρος, Xisuthrus). This name is generally regarded as transposing the elements of the name Atra-khasis, i. e., Khasis-Atra, the deluge hero, which is also Amorite (see Chapter VI). Other proposed identifications of the names of the Biblical antediluvian patriarchs are: 'Irad is surely a Sumerian or Babylonian word for some craft, which J. distorted into Yared "descent" (Langdon). Jared, meaning "descendant," may be from Dumuzi [Tammuz, a king of Erech], meaning "son of life" (Barton). In the name Lamech is seen "the Babylonian Ramku, 'the Priest'" (Sayce). The Sumerian an-shu "to heaven" may also be read an-ku which if mistaken for a proper name, would in Hebrew give Enoch (Barton). These identifications can speak for themselves. 328 Cf. Dati-Enlil, Dati (Dhorme, Beiträge zur Assyriologie VI 3 p. 78). Following is a table of the identifications made by scholars of the names in the Berossus list: = 1 'Alōros Aruru (a goddess), Lal-ur (a part of Lal-ur-alim-ma), and ......-alim. 2 'Alaparos = Adapa (= Adam), and [A]lalgar. 3 'Amillaros, Amelōn = Amêlu (Enosh), and En-me-nun-na. 4 'Ammenōn = ummânu (= Cain), Pilikam, and En-me-nun-na. 5 Megalaros, Megalanos = Amêl-Aruru and Mahalal-el. 6 Daōnos, Daōs = Etana, Laōnus from lù-an-na (of .....en-lù-an-na). 7 Euedōrakhos En-me-dur-an-ki (= Enoch). = 8 'Amempsinos Amêl-Sin, Mutu-sha-Arakhi, and ....-sib-zi-an-na. = 9 'Otiartās Ubar-Tutu. 'Ardatas Arad-gin. = 10 Xisuthros = Khasis-atra Atra-khasis. My own identifications of these names follow: 1 'Alōros El-Ur. = 2 'Alaparos = Alap-Ur. = = 3 'Amillaros Amêl-Ur. 'Amelōn Amêl-An. = Megal-Ur. Megalanos = Megal-An. 7 Euedōrakhos = probably Eved-Ur akh "the brother." On examination it will be observed that in the identifications proposed by others in every instance there is either the omission of the god's name, or one or all of the consonants have been changed; and that in my own identifications, all the elements are accounted for, and not a single consonant has been changed. I am convinced that, in declining to follow the efforts of others to show that the Biblical names are borrowed from these lists, and in refusing to accept the conclusion that these identifications "make it clear that the Biblical list and the Babylonian are fundamentally identical," without appealing to the argument concerning the migrations of peoples and traditions, as discussed in Chapter II, I shall be in a large company; for it surely must be apparent to every unprejudiced student that it requires a very big stretch of the imagination to believe that Israel accepted as a list of its progenitors such a concoction made up from these as well as the other sources referred to. And further, it must be conceded as unfortunate that a statement like the following has gone broadcast everywhere: "The ten Babylonian kings who reigned before the flood have also been accepted in the Bible as the ten antediluvian patriarchs, and the agreement is perfect in all details." Let us refer here also to an identification mentioned above, that has been made upon other grounds. In the library of Ashurbanipal there was found a legend which had apparently been copied from a tablet that had come from Sippar, which relates how Shamash and Adad, the gods of divination, called a seer En-me-dur-an-ki to their assembly, and gave him the tablets of the gods whereby he could divine the mysteries of heaven and earth through the pouring of oil on water and with the cedar staff. This individual, as we have seen above, is regarded as the origin of the Biblical Enoch. In the Old Testament the only light we have concerning Enoch, besides the fact that his father "built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his own son, Enoch," is that he lived three hundred and sixty-five years and walked with God, and "he was not, for God took him."34 From the apocryphal apocalyptic literature, however, of the later Jewish period, we get the impression that there was a wide circle of legends concerning Enoch. We are told that through visions he had gained much knowledge of what was going on in heaven and earth, whereby he was able to foretell the future. In the words of Jude, who apparently quoted 33 Delitzsch, Babel and Bible p. 41. 34 Genesis 4:17 and 5:23 f. this literature, Enoch prophesied, "behold the Lord coming with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment" (verses 14-16). Zimmern, followed by nearly all Babylonists, would have us believe that the Old Testament character Enoch, as well as the legends which prevailed in the West, had their origin in this "mythological king of Sippar, Enmeduranki," who, they say, was "the father of Babylonian divination."35 Let us here inquire what proofs have been offered for this identification. Assuming that Euedōrakhos in Berossus' list is the same as Enmeduranki, three arguments have been offered for the theory that he was Hebraized into Enoch: 1. Both Enoch and Enmeduranki were seers, who in the later period were recognized as having been in communion with their deities, and were able to reveal the mysteries of heaven and earth. 2. Euedōrakhos was the seventh in Berossus' list, while Enoch, although third or fifth in the J. list, was seventh in the P. list. 3. Enmeduranki being in the service of the sun-god Shamash, to Enoch were attributed three hundred and sixty-five as the years of his life, which is the number of days in the solar year. If Enoch and Enmeduranki were the same, the second point, namely that both are the seventh in the list would naturally show an interesting coincidence, at least with one of the Biblical lists, but the corresponding name in the Ashmolean tablet is eighth in the list. The third point, which has no support from the cuneiform text, for nothing is said concerning the number of years the seer lived, could just as well be said of any one of the myriads of devotees, not only of Shamash, but of all the many other sun-gods. Moreover in both the Berossus and the Ashmolean lists, Euedōrakhos lived as long as the longest-lived of the kings. A discussion of the remaining argument that both were seers, follows. 35 See Zimmern, Ibidem pp. 540 f; Jeremias, Ibidem p. 119; Driver, Ibidem p. 78; etc. |