The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia

by Theophilus G. Pinches

The word adam, meaning “man,” is found also in Phœnician, Sabean, and apparently in Arabic, under the form of atam, a collective meaning “creatures.”

The possibility that the Babylonians had an account of the Fall similar to that of the Hebrews, is not only suggested by the legends treated of above, but also by the cylinder-seal in the British Museum with what seems to be the representation of the Temptation engraved upon it. We have there presented to us the picture of a tree—a palm—bearing fruit, and on each side of it a seated figure, that on the right being to all appearance the man, and that on the left the woman, though there is not much difference between them, and, as far as the form of either goes, the sexes might easily be reversed. That, however, which seems to be intended for the man has the horned hat emblematic of divinity, or, probably, of divine origin, whilst from the figure which seems to be that of the woman this head-dress is absent. Behind her, moreover, with wavy body standing erect on his tail, is shown the serpent, towering just above her head, as if ready to speak with her. Both figures are stretching out a hand (the man the right, the woman the left) as if to pluck the fruit growing on the tree. Notwithstanding the doubts that have been thrown on the explanation here given of this celebrated and exceedingly interesting cylinder, the subject and its arrangement are so suggestive, that one can hardly regard it as being other than what it seems to be, namely, a Babylonian representation of the Temptation, according to records [pg 080] that the Babylonians possessed. The date of this object may be set down as being from about 2750 to 2000 b.c.

Future excavations in Babylonia and Assyria will, no doubt, furnish us with the legends current in those countries concerning the Temptation, the Fall, and the sequel thereto. Great interest would naturally attach to the Babylonian rendering of the details and development of the story, more particularly to the terms of the penalty, the expulsion, and the nature of the beings—the cherubim—placed at the east of the garden, and “the flaming sword turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

Though the Babylonian version of this Biblical story has not yet come to light, the inscriptions in the wedge-writing give us a few details bearing upon the word “cherub.”

The Hebrews understood these celestial beings as having the form which we attribute to angels—a glorified human appearance, but with the addition of wings. They are spoken of as bearing the throne of the Almighty through the clouds (“He rode upon a cherub, and did fly”), and in Psalm xviii. 11 he is also represented as sitting upon them. In Ezekiel i. and x. they are said to be of a very composite form, combining with the human shape the face of a cherub (whatever that may have been), a man, an ox, a lion, and an eagle. It has been supposed that Ezekiel was indebted to Assyro-Babylonian imagery for the details of the cherubic creatures that he describes, but it may safely be said that, though the sculptures furnish us with images of divine creatures in the form of a man with the face of an eagle, or having a modification of a lion's head, and bulls and lions with the faces of men, there has never yet been found a figure provided with a wheel for the purpose of locomotion, and having four heads, like those of which the prophet speaks. We may, therefore, safely conclude, that [pg 081] Ezekiel applied the word kerûb (cherub) to the creatures that he saw in his vision, because that was the most suitable word he could find, not because it was the term usually applied to things of that kind. It is hardly likely that the guardians of the entrance into the earthly Paradise and the creatures that bore up the throne of the Almighty were conceived as being of so complicated a form as the cherubim of Ezekiel.

Whatever doubt may exist as to the original form of this celestial being, the discussion of the origin of the Hebrew word kerûb may now be regarded as finally settled by the discovery of the Assyro-Babylonian records. It is undoubtedly borrowed from the Babylonian kirubu, a word meaning simply “spirit,” and conceived as one who was always in the presence (ina kirib) of God, and formed from the root qarābu, “to be near.” The change from q (qoph) to k (kaph) is very common in Babylonian, and occurs more frequently before e and i, hence the form in Hebrew, kerûb (cherub—the translators intended that ch should be pronounced as k) for qerûb (which the translators would have transcribed as kerub).

Originally the Assyro-Babylonian word kirubu seems to have meant something like “intimate friend,” or “familiar,” as in the expression kirub šarri, “familiar of the king,” mentioned between “daughter of the king,” and “the beloved woman of the king.” An illustration of its extended meaning of “spirit,” however, occurs in the following lines from “the tablet of Good Wishes”—

“In thy mouth may there be perfection of speech

(lû asim dababu);

In thine eye may there be brightness of sight