The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria

by Theophilus G. Pinches

And Monism.

Divested of its idealistic side, however, there would seem to be no escape from regarding the Babylonian idea of the origin of things as monistic.[*] This idea has its reflection, though not its reproduction, in the first chapter of Genesis, in which, verses 2, 6, and 7, water is represented as the first thing existing, though not the first abode of life. This divergency from the Babylonian view was inevitable with a monotheistic nation, such as the Jews were, regarding as they did the Deity as the great source of everything existing. What effect the moving of the Spirit of God upon the face of the waters (v.2) was supposed by them to have had, is uncertain, but it is to be noted that it was the land (vv. 11, 12) which first brought forth, at the command of God.

[*] Monism. The doctrine which holds that in the universe there is only a single element or principle from which everything is developed, this single principle being either mind (/idealistic monism/) or matter (/materialistic monism/). (Annandale.)

The future life.

The belief in a future life is the natural outcome of a religious belief such as the Babylonians, Assyrians, and many of the surrounding nations possessed. As has been shown, a portion of their creed consisted in hero-worship, which pre-supposes that the heroes in question continued to exist, in a state of still greater power and glory, after the conclusion of their life here upon earth.

"The god Bêl hates me—I cannot dwell in this land, and in the territory of Bêl I cannot set my face. I shall descend then to the Abyss; with Aa my lord shall I constantly dwell." It is with these words that, by the counsel of the god Aa, Ut-napištim explained to those who questioned him the reason why he was building the ship or ark which was to save him and his from the Flood, and there is but little doubt that the author of the story implied that he announced thereby his approaching death, or his departure to dwell with his god without passing the dread portals of the great leveller. This belief in the life beyond the grave seems to have been that which was current during the final centuries of the third millennium before Christ—when a man died, it was said that his god took him to himself, and we may therefore suppose, that there were as many heavens—places of contentment and bliss—as there were gods, and that every good man was regarded as going and dwelling evermore with the deity which he had worshipped and served faithfully during his lifetime.

Gilgameš, the half-divine king of Erech, who reigned during the half-mythical period, on losing his friend and counsellor, Enki-du, set out to find him, and to bring him back, if possible, from the underworld where he was supposed to dwell. His death, however, had not been like that of an ordinary man; it was not Namtaru, the spirit of fate, who had taken him, nor a misfortune such as befalls ordinary men, but Nerigal's unsparing lier-in-wait—yet though Nerigal was the god of war, Enki-du had not fallen on the battlefield of men, but had been seized by the earth (apparently the underworld where the wicked are is meant) in consequence, seemingly, of some trick or trap which had been laid for him.

The gods were therefore prayed, in turn, to bring him back, but none of them listened except Êa, who begged him of Nerigal, whereupon the latter opened the entrance to the place where he was—the hole of the earth—and brought forth "the spirit (/utukku/) of Enki-du like mist." Immediately after this come the words, "Tell, my friend, tell, my friend—the law of the land which thou sawest, tell," and the answer, "I will not tell thee, friend, I will not tell thee—if I tell thee the law of the land which I saw, . . . sit down, weep." Ultimately, however, the person appealed to—apparently the disembodied Enki-du—reveals something concerning the condition of the souls in the place of his sojourn after death, as follows:—

"Whom thou sawest [die] the death(?) [of][*] . . . [I see]—
In the resting-place of . . . reposing, pure waters he drinketh.
Whom in the battle thou sawest killed, I see—
His father and his mother raise his head,
And his wife upon [him leaneth?].
Whose corpse thou hast seen thrown down in the plain, I see—
His /edimmu/ in the earth reposeth not.
Whose /edimmu/ thou sawest without a caretaker, I see—
The leavings of the dish, the remains of the food,
Which in the street is thrown, he eateth."

[*] (?)"The death of the righteous," or something similar?