Video Transcript: Lesson 2

 

Unit 01 02 Introduction and Early Mesopotamia

Hello, my name is Rich Hamstra Let me welcome you to this second session. The World History 101 course, for the Christian leaders Institute today in our site is the second session, as I mentioned, and we will be looking primarily at the area of what's called Mesopotamia. That comes from two Greek words mezzo meeting, middle, and Potamia. Meeting a rivers. So this is an area between the rivers. The topics I hope that we are able to cover today include Sumur, one of the earliest civilizations, then there's some reflections on religion followed I hope by early Babylonia, and then ending today with the Assyrian Empire. It's my goal to get through all of these in our time together. We'll see how that goes. If we don't get to the Assyrians, we'll come back to them next time. So Mesopotamia is that area that you see on the screen with the yellow rectangle, it is basically the land between the Tigris and Euphrates River was afraid he's on the west side, and the Tigris on the east side. This area is primarily Delta down here where it drains into the Gulf, and it is often subjected to great floods. And early on, it was filled with marshes that people began draining many 1000s of years ago. Here's a reading assignment for you about Suhler. You will be held accountable for this. This is relatively brief only a couple of pages but it's a history of ancient Sumerian, let me tell you that this area of Mesopotamia, has been inhabited for 1000s and 1000s of years, and many different cultures have come and gone. We're going to start with Sumur. And this is really just the first stage of important historical events and civilizations in that area. So early Sumerian city states and we talked about that last time, what is required for city state to begin? It is there's social stratification, which is very important. So you have some people who are farmers, and some people who are warriors, and some people who are priests, and some people who are scribes, and you have people who dwell in the inside the cities often tradespeople and they're making stratification of society. Agriculture has to be made sustainable. Year after year, crops have to be produced that are able to feed the people, crops and and the domestication of animals. It's very important that there's technological revolution. And we see that here in ancient sewer where the sophistication of the irrigation becomes critically important to being able to live between those two rivers that were always flooding. And then when they weren't flooding, it was just dry as dry as dust, they're in Mesopotamia, so they had to use the water from the rivers to irrigate their crops. Very important, Early Bronze production becomes an important feature of that as well. And we'll see that there's a very much a development of religion that goes on. As I said, there were people living in this area for 1000s and 1000s of years, and they were beginning to drain the swamps and establish small towns, maybe beginning around the year 600, or I'm sorry, 6000 years before Christ. But right around the time of 3500 years ago to maybe 2335 years before Christ, they began to establish larger and larger towns still very much an agriculturally based society. But increasingly, there was centralization of power in the hands of a few. The temple priests were very, very significant. They set standards and when we reflect on religion, we'll see why. But also there were civic leaders, often warriors, military leaders, and in Sumur, they call these people lougle.

 

Over a period of time, some of these city states became more dominance over others. And when one city state becomes dominant over another, and then another and another, you begin to have the sense of a civilization or Empire so just To summarize, early Sumerian civilization, sometime around 350 3000 BC to 2300 BC, that land between the rivers called Mesopotamia. Often that area, and also going up into the mountains and data around the Mediterranean Sea coast is called the cradle of civilization. I would imagine people from India, or people from China, or people from Peru, or people from Mesoamerica, people from Africa would have lots of arguments with that. That cradle of civilization. Remember last time, we talked about the importance of perspective and acknowledging your assumptions. cradle of civilization is the way Western people look at Mesopotamia, Europeans and part of the United States Canada. These cultures that developed out of Mesopotamia, of course, India is independent of that China's independent of that Mesoamerica independent of that. But it is a term that's often used, and you may read it, so I thought, we should acknowledge it. This is the area again between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. And around 4000 city states arise around 3000. They're using canals very effectively, to irrigate their fields. The capital is a city called Zurich. But there were other very important cities as well. Here do or you may have heard of that. And there's some some idea that this is the same URL that Abraham the patriarch that we read about in the Bible comes from. There's another place known as Earth as farther up on the radius and some people think, perhaps that's his hometown. But there was a very important important verse called Earth Lagash, modish, Nupur, Kish, and many others, you'll see in this map, which does come from a little bit later period of time, some of the early cities, and if you enlarge it on your screen, you will see where they're located. The lower delta area around here was where the city states really had their greatest concentration, and greatest power. Upper, the upper Euphrates, between Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates that becomes very significant later on. And some of those cities that we'll come to in nearly every culture. And I only say nearly because there may be an exception that I'm not aware of, but in every culture that I'm aware of, the religion of that culture is central to its development, and how its organized, what its values are, and how people treat each other. And how they understand their relationship to the environment, natural forces. So, temples are built. Temples are where the gods live and where the priests work. For the Sumerians, their chief god was Anu, a sky god, and you might recall or you were asked last time to read about the Indo Europeans. And one of the features of indo European culture is the bringing of a sky god that often replaces the mother earth goddess, as the primary deity of these early cultures. So here we got a sky god and most likely, the early Sumerians were part of that indo European group.

 

And Neil is a storm god. And the storm god is extremely powerful in many of these ancient cultures, particularly in Mesopotamia, the storm god is the one whom you must, you must keep at bay. Because the storm God will destroy your whole life unless you can get him on your side. Ishtar is an ancient goddess. She was the goddess in the Sumerian culture, the morning and evening stars, she has lots of incarnations and different cultures. And I think you will find if you look at the different religions, how, as a cultures interact with each other and their religions spread and people talk about their religion, they see similarities in the various gods and goddesses and one place may call the person Ishtar, another may call them Aphrodite. But they merge in lots of ways. Ishtar is also pretty significant in that she is still the carryover of that mother earth goddess. And we see that in lots of cultures where there may be that a patriarchal God is at the head. But the matriarch is really the giver of life. Along with these official gods that were the Sumerian gods, of their of their whole culture, all these cities, each city also had a patron god or goddess as well. And it was particularly important that the priests make sure that that God is well tended. So temples are built in all of these towns or cities. And they are the local house of the God, that's what a temple is, it's where the god is thought to live, at least in when they are on earth, or when they're interacting with humans. So obviously, temples are places that are used for worship. What's also significant in most cultures, that temples are also the most protected buildings. They're usually the largest buildings, but also they're protected by thick walls, heavy brick construction. Often, that's where the soldiers guard the most carefully. And so temples, throughout ancient cultures often become what for us are sort of our banks, or our storage places, you put what's valuable to that city, in your culture. And that's where it's kept, the kings would keep their culture there. That way, the scribes and priests who are officials working in the culture are not only in charge of the religious activities, they are also very much the investment bankers of the ancient world. I'd like to take some time, more than just a little bit to reflect with you about religion. And, as I mentioned, every culture has at least one religion, some cultures develop multiple religions. But every culture has at least one that is a driving force, a foundational building block of that culture. And that's civilization. You cannot in particular, study ancient cultures, ancient religion, without recognizing the centrality of religion, of whatever kind that is. As I looked at the different religions, we're going to talk about in this course, one of the things that came to my mind is to notice some similarities. The similarities seem to be that the human development in a central part of that they need to find a way to deal with come to terms with and hopefully control the forces that are beyond our human capacity, whether is central environment, is central war. What it is that the political leaders are deciding is going to happen to your country is central, how do we come to terms with these forces that are beyond us?

 

In the ancient world, those forces were considered. Well, the gods were less concerned about your life than they were their own. The gods are all most always very self absorbed. And what they, what they want is for human beings to please them, to placate them, to make them happy. So religion develops fundamentally, as a way for human beings to figure out how it is we can get the gods to work for us. What do we have to do to keep the gods happy? What do we have to do to get the Gods not to be wrathful or angry? What do we need to do to get the gods to send us arrange at the right time or stop the rains at the right time? Always it is the case. What do we need to do to get the gods to take care of us To ensure that our goats, or our horses, or our women are fertile, to ensure that we have the blessings and prosperity in our trade negotiations, to make sure that our nation is secure from foreign threats and from warring people or from diseases or play, to give life some predictability. Many of these cultures live in volatile situations, particularly in the environment. You don't know when a flood is going to come raging down the Tigris and Euphrates. You would like life to be stable and predictable. Almost all of the creation stories, and every culture has one or more are about finding order in the midst of chaos. That includes the Genesis stories, and Genesis one if we see their Lord God, saying, speaking, and making order out of chaos, you pray to the gods for victory over your enemies. All of these are ways in which powers and forces beyond us, humans try to get into their control. And that's so much of the drive that is beyond behind this thing that we call religion. Let me just throw in. For a century, Westerners like myself, that the primary God is, goes by the name of success. What do we need to do, in order to get to be successful, these are going to be some just some images of some various gods, not only other national gods and city gods, but each household has his own god, or many gods, this is a figurine probably indicates the kind of idol, the kind of image that someone would have in their home. And maybe they would have a special little niche out of their brick wall that they would put this goddess in, or perhaps often they would bury the images under the foundations of their houses. These are the gods who would protect you, these are the gods who would ensure that your children do well. These are the gods that you would look to and pray to, and hope to. Here's an altar that's inscribed in Greek to an unknown God. I believe it's in Acts chapter 17, that we read about the apostle Paul, who goes to Athens, and there's he sees an altar to the unknown God. I'm not saying this is that altar by any means. But this is an altar from Greece, to an unknown God. Why an unknown God? Why

 

would you have an altar to that sort of deities? Well, because you better cover your basis, you better make sure that you're, please eat all the gods. What would happen if you make sacrifice after the sacrifice, after sacrifice, offer prayer after prayer after prayer, and disaster would still come upon you, because you missed a god. So this is sort of the catch all. This is the safety net sort of alter, alter, to an unknown God. Prayer is one of the substantial parts of every religious prayer as a means of meditation. It's a means of connecting with the god. This is a figurine from Egypt. I believe that this is Aphrodite, but in an incarnation of the Mother earth goddess with the many breasts, she seeds, the nation and one would one would hope that your crops, your family, your animals, will all be well nurtured and well predicted. So you would you would make offerings to this kind of gods. This is a much later image. This is from Rome, and we see the twins Romulus and Remus, who are nursing from a wolf. That's part of their foundational myth for the Romans, Romans that they were raised by Romulus and reverse are raised by rules. And they like that because that tells you something about their national character. We're the people taken care of in that way, by nature, this is actually a reproduction that alter, but I wanted you to see it so that you can see particularly at the top, you see a little round basin, you can play it out a little round base in here, that in this basin, worshipers would put oil or flowers, or perhaps blood from a small animal or a bird or incense, and they would burn this. The burning of a sacrifice is very significant in many cultures, because they would see the smoke arrived. And their hopes, their dreams, their prayers, their supplications would rise with that smoke smoke in the ancient world, particularly in the Mesopotamian cultures, is a vehicle for the prayers. So you offer and you burn on these kinds of items, alters this kind of alter, maybe father alongside the road, it might be in a city square and available to anyone to use if they felt the need to make a sacrifice. Okay, so religions are often the means to sway those forces, to be good to us, those gods to be good to us. So we offer sacrifices. Generally, that's understood as a mean of a means of feeding the gods. They liked certain things they liked ambrosia in Greece, they like lamb. They liked wonderful things. In some cultures, in many cultures, human sacrifices practice, the gods wanted the life, the blood of the young. The priests are also generally allowed to take their living, their livelihood, what they ate, day to day, from the sacrifices that are brought, not everything is burned, much is put into those temples and store houses. There are some rituals that are meant to entice or entertain the gods very common. And it's actually very difficult to translate in a lot of texts, ancient texts, including later, hopefully read a little bit from the Gilgamesh Epic. But also even in the Old and New Testament, it's very difficult to understand what the role of the prostitute was. Often that role is not as in our culture, that a woman may be forced to sell her self

 

for money, but prostitutes were actually revered. They were important people in the temples, and the men or women would go and and have sex with the prostitutes in the temples. And that was a means of worship of the gods, for the gods often were needed to be enticed, they needed to be entertained, they needed to see, oh, this is how fertility comes about. It happens all the time. You read particularly Old Testament, you'll get religions to that. Burning intent, as I mentioned, is another very common and still commonly used today. The image of the smoke on which the prayers rise is enduring human symbol of religion. Almost every culture builds temples, houses for the local gods. They are a place not only where the God lives, but where there is interaction with his God. Sometimes it's a place where people would go in order to be protected by that God, we call that a sanctuary. Meaning it's a holy place where protection is offered. You have to be in communication with a god you had to know what the God was looking for, if you were going to give that God what he or she wanted. In nearly every culture, there is a group of people called priests at a priest job and common religion is to be the expert to be the one who knows which actions are going to work to sway the god to your side. Sometimes there actions, sometimes their magic words. Sometimes they'll say, Well, this is how much you have to sacrifice. This is how much you have to bring to the altar. They figure out what needs to be done in order to get the God on your side. They are the technicians of religion. They're the ones who make it work. They often speak in immediate mediatorial way, they speak on the people's behalf, but also they speak in a prophetic way, what the gods have to say, this is what Istar wants you to do. This is what an eel wants you to do. This is what a new wants you to do. In the Sumur, Sumerian culture, sometimes priests would go into altered states with different kinds of medicinal things, medications, mushrooms, the whole shaman experience, where they would go into other other psychic places, and speak out of that. And that was the voice of the gods for people. So, commonly, worship meant showing the humility before the gods, one would go to one's needs, one would lie flat on one space. One would supplicate before the gods, for the gods could not stand. human pride. The gods cannot stand rivals, to their divinity, the gods cannot stand it. When humans got too uppity, as my mother would have said, This is what the Greeks called hubris. Not to know your place, not to understand your condition, not to be content with what you are, but to strive to become greater than you are including to become like God. Hubris is not accidental, that when the medieval Christian Church in Western Europe decided what the seven deadly sins were, the top one was pride. That's the first of the deadly sins. That is this hubris that has ancient, ancient background in various religions. Nearly every religion says hubris is the primary human problem. So how do we humble ourselves before the gods I find it difficult to internalize. And as I mentioned my assumptions about being a 21st century Western Christian pastor,

 

completely shaped by my face and the religion that I practice Christianity. But it is the case that in most of these ancient religions, the worshippers internal attitude, how they felt about their god was insignificant. It didn't matter. The gods didn't care how you felt about them. They just wanted to make sure that the proper rituals and rites are performed, the gods just wanted to make sure that they were served. They didn't care if you wanted to or not, you might admire the gods, you might trust them. Or you might resent them, you might distrust them, you might dread them. That's not particularly important. What do we have to do to keep the God on our side? Or in our culture, we wonder who truly has gods. So, religion, as a human phenomenon, as a historical development, is generally we can study each cultures, rituals and practices and teachings, the symbols that they use to influence or manipulate the deities to give us what we want. How do we get God on our side? How do we get God to take care of this time developed in different in almost every culture, the civic leader, we talked about the locals who are part of scenario, the City Leader began to claim that they have some sort of special relationship with the chief god or many of the gods often and such that the God is blessing that leader to be a successful administrator, or warrior or ruler. Often that rule is influenced through violence and warfare. The gods are, and they have put that civic leader in his position. And He rules by their authority. Sometimes in some cultures, we see that in Mesopotamia, particularly developing a little bit later, but as well in Egypt, and later in, when we talk about China, we'll talk about the Mandate of Heaven and the eternal emperor. The Divine Emperor rather, often leaders claim that they are the incarnation of the gods. They are the god on earth. Or, even more commonly, that they have some sort of biological descendants of the gods. We see that in Greek mythology and Roman mythology, but it's really quite common. These are called demigods. And sort of like a partially gods, very common. And these are, this is, of course, obviously a way to emphasize that they rule by divine right. It is a, it is a powerful fact, of the ancient world, that religion ran virtually everything, at least politically, in most cultures. One could imagine metaphor, was you have the temples and priests on the one hand, and you have the civic leaders and warriors on the other, that there were inevitable struggles between them? We see that all the time. We see that in the Old Testament struggles between the priests, or the religious leaders, and the kings. Just think about the prophets and how they speak to the kings all the time. The question again, is, who really speaks for God and God on their side? And if there's a failure, you lose a war, a crop fails, that failure is going to call into question the power of either the priests, or the rulers or both, to keep their God happy. In the end, over and over, we see that leadership is changed when people no longer believe that their leader has God on their side. We might wonder, they certainly wondered whether leaders practicing their religion correctly.

 

So let's summarize these reflections in the NGO world, moving right into the modern period, religion is created by humans as a means to an end.

 

least I think so. It is driven by our human interest or our self interest. And it pursues the question, What must I do to get the gods or gods to favor me? In all such religions, the focus is on human action, dedicated to control the gods to win their paper. That's the story of religion in so many ways, in so many places. Well, this is Christian leaders Institute course. And so we can't help but ask the question. Well, is the Christian faith such a religion? Does that accurately describe our practices, our rituals, our symbols, our words, our point of view?

 

Well, there certainly are numerous and especially in the if you look in the Old Testament texts, that will include religious practices that are intended to win or keep God's favor. But the Bible is a historic document as well as our document of faith. It presents us with the interactions of God in all sorts of historical contexts. The Lord does not speak to people in an abstract way, but in a very concrete way in their world at their time is words and terms and symbols that they will understand So if we do encounter, those sort of practices in which God's favor seems to have the courage in one way or another, not only do we understand them theologically, but we can also understand them historically. And we must respect that they're given in a very specific time, very specific place, very specific people, that they are not interpreted that way, we will inevitably, misunderstand. Yet I will easily maintain that the core of the Christian faith rests not on the belief of what we need to do to get God on our side, but just the opposite. It rests on the faith that the God in the Bible reveals, begins, that is initiates and persists in establishing a gracious, giving, loving relationship with the world. You know, John 316, is a text that is often memorized. Almost every Christian will know that text, For God so loved the world that He gave His only one and only son. Not only is that text important, because it's so memorable. But it's crucial for understanding the heart of our religion. God so loved the world that he did something gracious, he did something costly, He sent His one and only son. We don't have to do something, to get God to act on our behalf. What we need to do is understand that our faith, the Christian religion, is best understood as a response. Not an incitement to God, not a way to stimulate God, not a way to catch God's ear, not a way to get God to pay attention to us. But a response to the god who's already come to us in loving and gracious way that initiation and love of God in creation, in the coming of Jesus in the cross, and the resurrection, in God's taking care of us day to day in God's coming again, and Jesus Christ. Those are all things to which we respond with a great, thank you. That's where we live our lives. And that's where our religious practices can follow. Some of those practices are grand, grand, glorious, this is just a snapshot of the cathedral at Notre Dame in Paris. Folks worked on that for 1000 years building this great cathedral. Many times our actions are much more humble than that. They are acts of kindness to someone else acts of generosity, to those in need, acts of welcome to those who are refugees, those who are displaced, we practice what we have received from God. That's the Christian religion.

 

So the command is humans response to God's grace, His love for God, and neighbor. It's not that you have to sacrifice a certain number of animals. It's not that you have to bring and feed this god. It's not that you have to offer certain incense on which your prayers can rise. And if you don't do that, this God isn't gonna pay any attention to you know, it, his love for God and neighbor to Christian faith is one very much about our attitude. Our perspective on who is who God is, we are called to love. We love Paul said, because God in Christ first loved us. And that's the heart of the matter. And that distinguishes the Christian faith from so many others. Therefore, if we are so focused on making sure that we're doing the correct religious rights or following the correct religious practices or having the correct religious actions or teaching the correct religious teachings or organizations or communities that follow that become in and of themselves, significance, we missed the point. All of those things are intended to proclaim and promote that God's gift of grace is already given. And our response is to love God and our neighbor. Remember that religious practices are historically contextual. We practice religion in ways that proclaim or promote in our culture, your culture, but the essence of love, the love of the Christian says, the love of God for us first, and our love for Him and neighbor endures and adapts. So in the light of these reflections on religion, here is a reading assignment for you some biblical texts. Consider how the Bible talks about the human relationship with God and religious practices. In mica, chapter six, the question is asked, was, What shall I come before the Lord? What does he require of me? And that's the question of, what does this God want from me in order to?

 

To stay in good relationship with this guy? read that text, maybe it's 1000s of rams, maybe it's the life of my firstborn. Read what the Prophet says.

 

It's not that stuff. Here's what's required to Micah six, Jeremiah seven. Not today. But in the near future. We'll talk about the Kingdom of Babylonia, the Neo Babylonians, you know about Nebuchadnezzar and others from reading the Bible. In Jeremiah, the Babylonians, those Babylonians are at war with Egypt. And it looks like they're just going to walk right over Judah and Jerusalem. Many other advisors to the king says no, we got to fight him. Manny says, Hey, we should sign up with Egypt. Jeremiah, in his whole career is against that. He says, No, don't fight, don't fight. Don't fight them. Don't join the Egyptians. He gets in big trouble for that. His life is mostly miserable in many ways. In Jeremiah seven, he hears people saying, we don't have to worry the Babylonians. We don't have to worry about the Egyptians. We have the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. God lives here, and God will take care of us. They were trusting in their religion, and not so much their gods. They were listening to their impulse, to have magic and not to the word of the Prophet read Jeremiah seven. See what he says about the people who are sure that they're safe because the temple of the Lord is built in Jerusalem. already referenced Acts chapter 17. There Paul is an Athens and he speaks to the Athenians about the altar of the unknown god and speaks to them of who the true God is. It's not one who lives in temples made by human hands. And lastly, please read first Corinthians three verses 16 and 17. And later on chapter six, verses 19 and 20. There you will hear Paul tell us, where is the temple of the Lord? Where does God dwells? And it's not again, anywhere on earth nor shall it ever be. Read those texts. Okay, so much for the religious reflections. Let me move along to notable Sumerian acts, achievements. We're back to Sumur. The land of in between the two rivers, Tigris and Euphrates, and I'll just point out three things. Notable Sumerian achievements are in writing in the building of their ziggurats and in math and civic organizations. So you've heard of cuneiform, I suspect. cuneiform is a way of impressing in clay with a pointed read symbols that stood for something else. We have over 500,000 of these are these bricks, cloud and this revolutionary process, but the symbols originally they began to if you had five towers they would draw, try to draw five towers, but over time, that became very difficult. And so they began to use their markings in the clay as symbols later develops, that they say, you know, if we just look at those things and, and assign them a sound, then we can put various ones together. And there's the beginning of written language as we know it. Now, cuneiform itself is not a language is just a series of pictures of impressions in play. But it is a way to represent the various languages. And a number of different cultures in Mesopotamia, use cuneiform to represent their own language. You can imagine that there are people who look at symbols and say, well, it says, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and someone else from an entire different culture says, No, that's Hickory Dickory Dock, both would be correct, because pictographs are used by various cultures and given different sounds. So cuneiform is not a language, but it is a consistent set of symbols.

 

Now, one of the things the development of writing does have teaches us that society has already become diverse. Writing, and keeping track of things we've talked about bookkeeping earlier, is exclusively in the hands of priests, and other students, who are we call scribes, people who write stuff. They are the ones who know how to make the symbols. And they are the ones who pass that on in their schools, from generation to generation. But the only people who learn to write are those who have to learn to write in order to keep track. It's also very clear in some area, that trade and international trade even was significant. Now, this is a these are three cuneiform tablets. I believe this is in the British Museum in London. And if you zoom in on them, you'll be able to pick out some of the various symbols that are used. As I said, 1000s upon 1000s upon 1000s of these have been found, originally just use for bookkeeping, it seems, but later on, they became the ways in which the ancient stories, their legends, their tales, their mythology, their accomplishments of their kings, are all written down. A second notable thing as early scenarios is that they began to build temple mounds. These are raised platforms called ziggurats. It's a pyramidal shaped thing. This is a reconstruction of the ziggurat, I believe it's at Earth. And this is this would just be the base. On top of this retangular pyramid shaped pyramid, on top of it, on the flat surface would go yet a taller tower. That was actually the ziggurat in which the priests would offer their sacrifices and their prayers. The most memorable account of ziggurat that we know of, is that tower of Babel, where they build a tower that will reach to heaven to show how great they are. Remember, we talked about hubris, the gods a hubris. A third thing that the Sumerians are remembered for and still have lasting significance is in their account in their mathematical system. They had, they kept track of things in incredible ways and incredible details. So they had a counting system that is not based on 10. As let's say the metric system is based on number six, and R and 60. So today, when we say how many degrees are there in a circle, we say 360. That comes from scenario. If we were wearing a watch, and we say, well, how many seconds and how many minutes 60 seconds, 60 minutes in each hour, that comes from ancient Sumerian. from Mesopotamia that counting by 60. They also had a tremendous business system, in which it was very clear who was in business how much they were making, they had loans and pay back the system. They had international trade. Even early scenario 3000 BC demonstrates that they work trading with Egypt to the west, and India, to the east. These people were not isolated. They were in contact constantly. They were very sophisticated and understanding how the moon would rise and fall. And they base their calendar, as most Asian cultures did on the lunar cycle. Well, summer, early summer, falls after a few 100 years. And a people from the north who are Semites from the city primarily of a cod, come and overwhelm them. Probably militarily, the early Sumerians did not have a standing army, and were unable to protect themselves from the invading Acadians. One of those famous ones later in time, is Sargon. The first Sargon becomes a major ruler of Mesopotamia, and is able to control a vast area. And go back and point this out. Here's another reading assignment for you. For this session, it is about Sargon. The first

 

and let me just mention, Joshua J. Mark, who is the author of this article, many, many of the articles that you will be reading in this course, particularly in the time before Christ are from John, Joshua J. Mark. I've communicated with him and to give my thanks for allowing us to use these articles. And he responded very graciously, and hope you enjoy them and learn from them. So this assignment is about Sargon, of ATOD. Sargon extended his rule, not just from a card is up here, not just from a card, and not just from the Tigris and Euphrates, but was influential throughout the area, reaching much farther east than others had much farther north than others had, and reaching even to the Mediterranean. Obviously, I'm backwards with my cursor, even all the way to the Mediterranean in his insolence. So in many ways, Sargon the first becomes the first major international or crossing many borders. Need to Know next, and I know we're just touching on these subjects. There's so much to cover. We can go in depth in virtually every one of them. But there just isn't time, early Babylon. Now be careful. There's an early Babylon and then there's a later Babylon. This early Babylon is around the year, 1800 years before Christ. Don't confuse this with the Babylon that we read about in the Old Testament. It predates that Old Testament by Oh, at least 800 years, if not more. So this is early Babylon. It to becomes an international empire, like the Acadian under Sargon. The first it has a political and economic power over almost all Middle East all the way from Iran to Egypt, and Egypt outpost in Palestine. It changed the name of the God although kept a lot of the same characteristics. Marduk is the sky god who requires sacrifice, especially human sacrifice. I would like you to read this article again by Joshua mark. About early Babel in both the paragraphs in the article on definition, and the Old City and Hobby Lobby, you will be reading it will be assigned to read the rest of the article. It's a little bit later points. But you can get started on those two paragraphs. One of the kings as most remembered from this early babbling time is the person named haba Ravi and he is remembered significantly for being a tremendous military leader conqueror. He was one of the first in Babylon to defeat the previous nation of Sumur and a cod and so he took control of the entire area of Mesopotamia. But he published his code, what's called Hama Robbie's code. In the year 1754, before Christ, this code is not the earliest law code that we have, but is among them. And just interesting in so many ways. It includes over 280 laws that regulate the personal that is the inter personal actions and business concerns. Much of it is about business concerns of people. It deals with what is the appropriate fine or punishment when a relationship has been violated. And this is significant, because now it's just not up to the local King or the local judge or the local people to decide. Do we do this? Or do we, you know, somebody cheats me in business. What's the correct punishment? Somebody abused as a child? What's the correct punishment? No, now Hama, Ravi, the king of all decides, it's quite an exertion of power and control over people. The famous i for an eye tooth for a tooth is found here. And how the Rabi a good 500 years at least before Moses,

 

the code of Hammurabi was engraved on many Baltic rocks, Black Rock, in Acadian uniform, and it's shaped like an index finger. It's there to I suspect, to, to point out, perhaps to point to heaven to emphasize that he's doing this with divine authority. Or perhaps it's just to make a point. I don't know in ancient Babylon culture, whether or not people pointed to make did this with their index finger in order to make a point, I only remember my junior high English teacher, realize she had a finger about this long and she was excellent point it has a lot to do. Making the point, as we said, I suspect it's more pointing toward heaven. That Hammurabi in the code begins by asserting that He is the ruler by divine authority and divine right. And he distributed many of these steelies these rock, they're called steelies. throughout the empire here is a image of Hama Robbie's. This is one of the steelies I believe this is in the Louvre, in Paris, and it is engraved with the 218 Plus laws of Hammurabi. You can read him today, if you can read ancient Acadian. A further feature of this time period of early Babylon is the publication of stories, mythologies and legends in the light that had been around for hundreds, maybe 1000s of years before, but we're not in written form, at least, we don't have them in written form, much before the Babylon period. Some of the notable stories of that time include a creation story. And that I point you to these readings are not assigned. These are only recommended these three on this on this screen. So you don't have to read these. But if you want to read more, you're welcome to do that. There's an ancient creation story, how that happens. There is the guild of what's called the Gilgamesh Epic. And the article again by Joshua marks on all that is quite excellent. Excuse me, and there is a great part of the Gilgamesh epic actually that concerns a flood. I thought I'd pause a moment and read you a little bit from the Gilgamesh epic in translation, of course, the story of Gilgamesh and part of the story is that he is given by the gods he's given a friend and he and his friend have all these great exploits. They're they're larger than life heroes. They both are semi divine beings, demigods. But his friend dies, is killed. And Gilgamesh is wracked with grief and is confronted with the mortality of human life. And a great part of the Gilgamesh Epic is his search for immortal life. And I want to read you just a little piece of it that deals with this in this scene that I'm going to read. He has come upon a tavern keepers. He's been on a long, terribly arduous journey, and he finds it place to stay for the night. And there's a tavern keeper. I mentioned it's difficult. It's often difficult to know how to do translations. In some people's opinions. This tavern keeper probably was also a prostitute or tavern keeper may be a euphemism for prostitute. So here's Gilgamesh addressing the tavern keeper. She asked him his story and he says, my friend, whom I love so deeply, who went with me through every danger, in key to whom I love so deeply to wet with me through every danger. He went to the doom of mortal men weeping over him day and night. I did not surrender his body for burial. Maybe my friend will rise at my cry for seven days and seven nights, until a maggot dropped from his nostrils after he was gone, I did not find life wandering like a trapper in the midst of the Wild Oats having keeper I have looked on your face

 

that I would not leave death that I fear is so much so the tavern keeper to him to Gilgamesh Oh, Gilgamesh, where are you wandering the life that you seek them you will never find when the gods created humankind, death, they dispense to humankind. Life they kept for themselves but you Gilgamesh let your belly be full. Enjoy yourself always by day and by night. Make marry each day dance and play day and night. Lets your clothes be clean. Let your head be washed. May you be bathed in water. gaze on the child who holds your hand let your wife enjoy your repeated embrace. For such is the destiny of mortal men. Gilgamesh said to her Oh, tavern keeper. Why do you talk this way? My heart is sick. Very sick for my friend. Oh Tavin keeper. Why'd you talk this way? My heart is very sick for Enkidu. But you dwell Oh, tavern keeper on the shore of the ocean. You are familiar with all the ways across show me Oh, show me. If it may be done, I will cross the ocean. The story continues with him going on another long journey down to the bottom of the ocean to find the plant of life eternal. Gilgamesh searches for eternal life. That is part of our human predicament is told by the tavern keeper. In fact, eat, drink and be married. Advice we read in Scripture says He asked these three that advice as well that we read in many cultures.

 

If this world is all there is to let's just have a big party. Again, in our Christian faith, we're sure that this is not all there is. I think that will save the Assyrian Empire until session three.

 

My voice is about shot for today. And so I think that will end our session to at this point. Remember to go back and check out those readings. Take care of them, they will be part of the quiz. Thank you very much for today. This is Rich hamstra signing off.