CHAPTER XV.
Religion.
We have learned something of the primitive religious ideas of the Chaldeans, or Sumerians, who originally occupied Babylonia. However, when the Babylonian religion is mentioned, reference is made to the later faith of the valley, and this resulted from a blending of the Sumerian beliefs and the religious system brought in by the Semitic invaders.
The original inhabitants of the country, in their attempt to explain the forces of nature, had conceived that spirits belonged to animate as well as inanimate objects, and that these spirits had power to bless or injure. The rain could refresh the crops or it might wash them out of the earth; the sun could cause the grain to germinate or in a day could dry it up with withering heat. The evil which each spirit was likely to do so far exceeded the good that gradually these spirits were thought of as demons. It was a demon which took possession of a man and made him ill. Famines were brought by the south-west wind. In short, demons threatened on every hand, and only a diligent use of charms and frequent incantations could protect humanity and enable each to live out his days amidst such imminent dangers.
Now it is evident that there is no trace of our conception of a god in all this, but the early Sumerians had also their gods which were likewise personifications of nature, and these were later adopted by the Babylonian Semites, who also took over the earlier beliefs about the various spirits. In the course of perhaps several hundred years from the blending of the two beliefs, with such changes as growing intelligence brought, the religion of the Babylonians was evolved.
The Semites who pushed north and founded the state of Assyria, took with them the religion of the southern kingdom.
In explaining further the religion of the southland, we must remember its early political situation. Instead of one united kingdom, it was made up of a number of little states under leadership of cities. The leading cities had grown up around the temple of some protecting deity whose favor was believed to extend over the immediate vicinity. Thus, for example, Sin, the Moon-god, was not only the patron deity of Ur, but of the whole state of which Ur was the capital city. To exalt its god, a state would reach out to incorporate another. The people thus conquered did not cease to worship their former deity but now gave homage to the god of their conquerors as well. When several little states were united, the greatest of their gods was the god of their strongest city, since he had clearly demonstrated his power by giving victory over the rest. In truth, it should be explained that such was the official god, for without doubt the masses knew little of political absorption and worshipped the god of their infancy rather than new gods honored by the state.
In course of various unions, En-lil or Bel became the most important god in Babylonia and remained so until Babylon gained supremacy over all other states. Then Marduk, her ancient god, was given first place.
A brief consideration of the leading Babylonian gods will help us to gain some insight into these early ideas and conceptions. As early as 3500 B.C., En-lil or Bel was worshipped in Nippur. The very name testifies to its Sumerian origin. Lil signifies demon, and En-lil was the chief of spirits. In one of the earliest inscriptions in Sumerian he is mentioned with Anna and Enki, the gods of heaven and the abyss. These three made up the original triad and as such they continued throughout the later period as Bel Anu and Ea. Nippur became a strong political center and this made Bel principal god of the land until his powers were transferred to Marduk. Bel's consort, like the consorts of all Babylonian gods, was but a weak reflection of the god himself.
Eridu was a seaport. Ea, god of "that which is below," was its local deity. He was first considered as god of the earth but the water was of greater commercial importance and gradually he grew to be regarded as god of the deep. From merely a local god, protecting Eridu, he extended his sway over all waters. In both Larsa and Sippar the sun-god Shamash, known among the Sumerians as Utu, was honored. No other deity enjoyed such continued popularity as the "god of day." From the earliest to the latest period he was hailed as the "god that gives light and life to all things, upon whose favor the prosperity of the fields and well-being of man depend." As light is opposed to darkness, so again light reveals wrong doing; for this reason this god of light became associated with justice. Sin, the Moon-god, was given prominence over Shamash, so far as official order of deities was concerned. Some renown attached to him because he was the father of Ishtar. Indeed from being the father of many gods and goddesses, he was remembered as father of this brilliant goddess, greater than all others. Sin was worshipped more extensively in early times.
Ishtar, supreme goddess, mother of the gods, was first conceived as a mild, sympathetic mother-spirit, a goddess of love and care. In Assyria, however, she was regarded as goddess of war and battle, and was associated with Asshur in that connection. Nabu, the wise, all-knowing god, sacred in Borsippa, was also popular in literature and learning. In addition to being patron of intelligence and wisdom, he was also patron of agriculture. When his favor was given, storehouses were heaped high with grain; when his favor was withdrawn, famine afflicted the land. From the twelfth century B.C. onwards his name appears in royal names such as Nabo-polasar, Nebuchadnezzar, Nabo-nidus, and in the ninth century B.C. the worship of this god only was preached: "Put thy trust in Nebo; trust not in another God." The long proper names so constantly found in both Babylonia and Assyria were always compounded from several words and had some particular meaning—as, Sennacherib, or more correctly Sin-akhi-irib, meaning "Sin has multiplied brethren;" Buzur-Asshur—"a stronghold is Asshur;" Sargon or Sargina—Sar meaning king and gin, to establish, "I am the established king."
Anu was the god of the heavens; Ramman the god of storm, and both held important places in the myths and stories of the people. In later times Ea was a deity of wide dominion. Father of Marduk, he was god of humanity. He gave wisdom, and as god of water, fountains were sacred to him. Oannes or Fish-Man was simply a name given him by Greek travellers. In time he was regarded as god of civilization, and nothing could have been more natural, for over the waters he protected came civilization to Chaldea, and progress was facilitated by navigation. Great works of art were ascribed to him; likewise he was god of the smith and of the sculptor.
The great bulls were works of his hand. He was probably made father of Marduk in later years, when Babylon's god had been given first place in the nation, and the only way to reconcile all that was believed of Ea was to show that as father, his wisdom had descended to his son, Marduk.
In addition to these leading deities, there was a host of minor ones but their enumeration would be useless for our purposes. One tablet in the British museum contained originally the names of nearly 1,800 gods. They were early local gods, and as their states were added to the kingdom, they were included in the temple lists to pacify their worshippers.
The religious faith and worship for any one district was not complicated. Each little community had its patron deity and paid scant attention to the numerous gods of temple lists.
In Assyria the political situation had been far different. No large number of petty states, each with its religious system, had united to form the kingdom; consequently we miss the numerous gods found in Babylonia. Asshur was the one great god of the northern people. Alone he stood, god of all. When Assyria entered upon her military career, Asshur was regarded as god of war, and because of repeated victory, grew very popular in this conception. His standard was carried into battle to encourage the soldiers; knowing that his mighty power was with them, they could not fail. The standard of Asshur, one of the earliest ensigns of the battle field, has its own interest for us. On top of a long pole, guarded on either side by huge wings, perhaps the wings of the eagle, a circle enclosed the figure of an archer, shooting an arrow. Seen afar by faltering troops, the standards of the national god gave new strength and inspired fresh hope of victory.
The similarity between the religion of the Assyrians and the Hebrews has frequently been noted. Both nations were Semitic and hence their inheritances were the same. Their origin and early home was identical. The Hebrews, in course of their wanderings and experiences, grew to worship one God to the exclusion of all others. The Assyrians retained their warlike disposition, and worshipped one God as greater than all others, but they allowed other deities to be honored as well. Both nations with great regularity ascribed all their victories to the divinity they worshipped—nay, more by far, they attributed all their slaughters to the same deity. The Hebrews, during the period when as tribes they struggled for existence, treated their enemies with great cruelty. This was done, they insisted, to appease their God, or generally in furtherance of his direct command. Their brethren, the Assyrians, proceeded in exactly the same manner, and all their ruthless deeds were done to gratify Asshur and avenge the insults done him by revolts against his strength. One divinity commanded the outrages as much as the other, and they were but expressions of an early and barbarous development.
Among the masses, the sacrifice was unquestionably that feature of worship best understood. It seems to have been an instinct born in man to make offerings to appease the wrath of a god, and to seek by the same means to win his favor. The priests acted as mediators between the people and the divinity. To a priest, the farmer, laborer, and slave as well as the noble and prince, brought each his offering, and such portions as were considered sacred were offered upon the altar.
As the Egyptian provided food for the ka of the deceased, so also the Babylonian provided it for the zi of his dead. It is possible that the belief in the shadowy ka came originally from the valley of the Euphrates.
Gods were supposed to visit their shrines at intervals and so food was placed for them. The masses of the people were so ignorant that it is entirely probable they regarded the image of the god as the god himself, and that they thought these images of clay and stone actually devoured the food they brought.[1] The more enlightened had no such crude notions, but realized that the god-spirit was something apart from anything they saw and worshipped. If we substitute the name of the Hebrew deity in place of the Babylonian god, worshippers of Judah might have used some of the hymns of prayer and praise used in Babylonia:
"The heart of my lord is wroth; may it be appeased!
O lord, my sins are many, my transgressions are great!
The sin that I sinned I knew not,
The transgression I committed I knew not,
The lord in the wrath of his heart has regarded me,
God in the fierceness of his heart has revealed himself to me.
I sought for help and none took my hand;
I wept, and none stood at my side;
I cried aloud, and there was none that heard me.
I am in trouble and hiding; I dare not look up.
To my god, the merciful one, I turn myself, I utter my prayer;
The sins I have sinned turn into a blessing;
The transgressions I have committed let the wind carry away!
Strip off my manifold wickedness as a garment!
O my god, seven times seven are my transgressions: forgive my sins!"
Another, written first to Sin of Ur, and later incorporated into the hymns of the nation:
"Father, long-suffering and full of forgiveness,
Whose hand upholdeth the life of all mankind!
First-born, omnipotent, whose heart is immensity, and there is none who may fathom it!
In heaven who is supreme? Thou alone, thou art supreme!
On earth, who is supreme? Thou alone, thou art supreme!
As for thee, thy will is made known in heaven, and the angels bow their faces.
As for thee, thy will is made known upon earth, and the spirits below kiss the ground."
Elsewhere we find Ashur appealed to as "lord of the gods, who has created himself."
Services were many. Each day required its own offerings and ceremonies. The changes of the moon were watched and accompanied by peculiar services. Taboos were placed on certain days and on these no work was permitted.
The priesthood was large. Besides the chief priests, there were elders, anointers,—who anointed the images of the gods and the vessels of the temple with sacred oil; priests who presided over the oracles and whose function it was to ascertain auspicious times for war and other prodigious undertakings, and seers, who interpreted dreams.
Revenues of the temples came from offerings and more regularly, from the tithe, a tax paid by both king and subjects. In this way, the temples controlled property. Their lands were usually rented out.
When Babylonia reached her age of greatest prosperity, the religion of the land had been greatly secularized, and the temples were important for their business significances quite as much as for their religious features. "The temple exerted an overwhelming financial influence in smaller towns. Only in certain large cities was it rivalled by a few great firms. Its financial status was that of the chief, if not the only, great capitalist. Its political influence was also great. This was largely enlisted on the side of peace at home and stability in business." Its great possessions resulted from the daily and monthly payments, from lands dedicated to the temple by devout ones, and from careful investment of revenues.
"The temple was also a commercial institution of high efficiency. Their accumulations of all sorts of raw products were enormous. The temple let out or advanced all kinds of raw material, usually on easy terms. To the poor, as a charity, advances were made in times of a scarcity or personal want, to their tenants as part of the metayer system of tenure, to slaves who lived outside its precincts, and to contractors who took the material on purely commercial terms. The return was expected in kind, to the full amount of advance, or with stipulated interest....
"The temples did a certain amount of banking business. By this we mean that they held money on deposit against the call of the depositor. Whether they charged for safe-keeping or remunerated themselves by investing the bulk of their capital, reserving a balance to meet calls, does not appear....
"In certain circumstances the king's officials might borrow of the temples.... Some kings laid hands on the treasure of the temple for their own use. Doubtless this was done under bond to repay. The cases in which we read of such practices are always represented as a wrong....
"The temple could act in all the capacities of a private individual or a firm of traders."[2]
The religion of Mesopotamia did not require the believer to preserve his dead, as in Egypt. Cremation was almost always resorted to, and for this reason we lack the tomb-finds, so elucidating in Egypt. The body was made ready for burial, with some food and other necessities, then it was partially burned, at least, and the remains entombed. The conditions of the country in Babylonia made cremation almost a necessity.
While some degree of purity was occasionally reached in Mesopotamian conceptions of religion, and far-sighted and high-minded persons lived in both countries, there was much that was degrading in connection with the worship. All Babylonian classes were grossly superstitious and believed always in the demons. The incantations used to drive these away were not only countenanced by the priesthood, but were taught as a part of the established worship. Demons were of various kinds and possessed different degrees of power. They lurked in obscure places, ready to inflict themselves upon unhappy mortals. All diseases, all misfortunes were their doings. A sufferer exclaims:
"They have used all kinds of charms
to entwine me as a rope,
to catch me as in a cage,
to tie me as with cords,
to overpower me as in a net,
to twist me as with a sling,
to tear me as a fabric,
to throw me down as a wall."
To this the conjurer replies:
"But I by command of Marduk, the lord of charms,
by Marduk, the master of bewitchment,
Both the male and female witch
as with ropes I will entwine,
as in a cage I will catch,
as with cords I will tie,
as in a net I will overpower,
as in a sling I will twist,
as a fabric I will tear,
as a wall throw them down."
At this juncture, images of witches were burned by fire, having been tortured first by these specified actions.
The ritual set forth water as a purification for some bewitchment.
"Glittering water, pure water,
Holy water, resplendent water,
The water twice seven times may he bring,
May he make pure, may he make resplendent.
May the evil spirit depart,
May he betake himself outside,
Spirit of heaven, be thou invoked!
Spirit of earth, be thou invoked!
Another remedy was this:
"White wool, which has been spun into thread,
To attach it to his couch in front and at the top,
Black wool which has been spun into thread
To bind at his left side."[3]
In addition to long lists of formulæ for driving away the demons of sickness, and famine and misfortune, a countless number of omens had to be taken into account if one wished success to accompany his undertakings. Some of these concerned the movement of heavenly bodies.
"The moon and sun are balanced.
The subjects will be faithful
The king of the land will reign for a long time."
Another brought a sense of danger in its day:
"On the fifteenth day the sun and moon are seen together,
A powerful enemy raises his weapons against the land,
The enemy will smash the great gate of the city;
The star of Anu appears bright—
The enemy will devastate."
Or this:
"The moon is seen out of season,
Crops will be small.
On the twelfth day the moon is seen together with the sun—
A strong enemy will devastate the land."
A numerous list of omens pertained to the doings of animals. Stray dogs might bring disaster if they entered houses in unusual ways, and yet it was necessary that they frequent the streets. By-ways that they left were not thought lucky. The following omens have been translated from old tablets:
"If a yellow dog enters a palace, it is a sign of distress.
If a speckled dog enters a palace, the palace will give peace to the enemy.
If a dog enters a palace and crouches on the couch, no one will enjoy that palace in peace.
If a dog enters a temple, the gods will not enlarge the land.
If a raven enters a man's house, that man will secure whatever he desires."
All kinds of dreams were carefully tabulated, and were noted from time to time in connection with events in the dreamers' lives:
"If in a dream a fish appear on a man's head, that man will be powerful."
"If a mountain appear on a man's head, that man will be without a rival."[4]
While all these omens were not directly connected with worship, they were consistent with the religious teaching of the time, and so are perhaps rightly considered here.
The Babylonians were more religious than the Assyrians and their government was far more bound up in religious ceremonies. One fact alone bears out this statement: In Babylonia the king must each year celebrate anew the ceremony of taking his temporal power from the god Marduk by taking the hands of the god's image. This service took place on New Year's day, and no matter what might be the situation in other parts of the empire, to Babylon the king must come and observe the ancient custom would he remain possessor of the kingly crown.
[1] See the apocryphal story of Bel and the Dragon.
[2] Johns: Baby. and Assy. Laws, Contracts and Letters, 211.
[3] Jastrow: Babylonian Religion.
[4] Jastrow: Babylonian Religion.
The name Nebuchadnezzar in two forms of writing—as found on brick and in inscriptions.