This symbolic scene, therefore, remains still a [pg 075] mystery for scholars to explain when they obtain the material to do so. It seems to be a peculiarly Assyrian design, for the offering of a pine-cone or similarly-shaped object to the sacred tree has not yet been found in Babylonian art. The Babylonian sacred tree is, moreover, a much more natural-looking object than the curious combination of knots and honeysuckle-shaped flowers found in the sculptures of Assyria. As in the case of the tree shown in the picture of the Temptation, described below, the sacred tree of the Babylonians often takes the form of a palm-tree, or something very like one. (See pl. [III].)
As has been already remarked, the tree of Paradise of the Babylonians was, to all appearance, a vine, described as being in colour like blue and white mottled lapis-lazuli, and apparently bearing fruit (grapes) of a dark colour. That the Babylonian tree of life was a vine is supported by the fact that the ideograms composing the word for “wine” are geš-tin (for kaš-tin), “drink of life,” and “the vine,” giš geš-tin, “tree of the drink of life.” In the text describing the Babylonian Paradise and its divine tree, the name of the latter is given as kiškanû in Semitic, and giš-kin or giš-kan in Akkadian, a word mentioned in the bilingual lists among plants of the vine species. Whether the Hebrews regarded the tree of life as having been a vine or not, cannot at present be decided, but it is very probable that they had the same ideas as the Babylonians in the matter.
It is noteworthy, in this connection, that the Babylonians also believed that there still existed in the world a plant (they do not seem to have regarded it as a tree) which “would make an old man young again.” Judging from the statements concerning it, one would imagine that it was a kind of thorn-bush. As we shall see later, when treating of the story of the Flood, it was this plant which the Chaldean Noah gave the hero Gilgameš instructions how to find—for [pg 076] the desire to become young again had seized him—and he seems to have succeeded in possessing himself of it, only to lose it again almost immediately, for a lion, coming that way at a time when Gilgameš was otherwise occupied, carried it off—to his own benefit, as the hero remarks, for he naturally supposed that the lion who had seized the plant would have his life renewed, and prey all the longer upon the people.
The title of a lost legend, “When the kiškanû (? vine, see above) grew in the land” (referring, perhaps, to the tree of life which grew in Êridu), leads one to ask whether “The legend of Nisaba (the corn-deity) and the date-palm,” and “The legend of the luluppu-tree” may not also refer to sacred trees, bearing upon the question of the tree of knowledge referred to in Gen. ii. As, however, the titles (generally a portion of the first line only) are all that are at present preserved, there is nothing to be done but wait patiently until it pleases Providence to make them further known to us.
The kiškanû was of three kinds, white (piṣu), black (ṣalmi), as in the description of the tree of Paradise, and grey or blue (sâmi). In view of there being these three colours, it would seem that they refer rather to the fruit of the tree than to the tree itself. Now the only plant growing in the country and having these three colours of fruit, is the vine. Of course, this raises the question whether (1) the kiškanû is a synonym of gištin or karanu, or (2) the word gištin, which is generally rendered “vine,” is, in reality, correctly translated. Whatever be the true explanation, one thing is certain, namely, that in the description of Paradise, the word black or dark (ṣalmu), applied to the tree there mentioned, cannot refer to the tree itself, for that is described as being like “white lapis” (uknū êbbu), a beautiful stone mottled blue and white.
Babylonian Mythological Composition. Impression of a cylinder-seal showing a male figure on the right and a bull-man on the left, holding erect bulls by the horns and tails. In the centre is a form of the sacred tree on a hill. Date about 2500 b.c. British Museum.
Babylonian Mythological Composition. Impression of a cylinder-seal showing Istar, goddess of love and of war as archeress, standing on the back of a lion, which turns its head to caress her feet. Before her is a worshipper (priest) and two goats (reversed to form a symmetrical design), leaping. Behind her is a date-palm. Date about 650 b.c. British Museum.