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The term that is commonly translated as"worship" was in fact avod ("work").Ancient and biblical Man did not "worship" his god; he worked forhim.No sooner had the biblical Deity, like the gods in Sumerian accounts, created Man, than he planted agarden and assigned Man to work there:And the Lord God took the "Man" and placed him in the garden of Eden to till it and to tend it.Later on, the Bible describes the Deity "strolling in the garden in the breeze of the day," now that thenew being was there to tend the Garden of Eden.How far is this version from the Sumerian texts thatdescribe how the gods clamored for workers so that they could rest and relax?In the Sumerian versions, the decision to create Man was adopted by the gods in their Assembly.Significantly, the Book of Genesis - purportedly exalting the achievements of a sole Deity - uses theplural Elohim (literally, "deities") to denote "God," and reports an astonishing remark:And Elohim said:"Let us make Man in our image,after our likeness."Whom did the sole but plural Deity address, and who were the "us" in whose plural image and plurallikeness Man was to be made? The Book of Genesis does not provide the answer.Then, when Adamand Eve ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowing, Elohim issued a warning to the same unnamedcolleagues: "Behold, Man has become as one of us, to know good and evil."Since the biblical story of Creation, like the other tales of beginnings in Genesis, stems from Sumerianorigins, the answer is obvious.Condensing the many gods into a single Supreme Deity, the biblical taleis but an edited version of the Sumerian reports of the discussions in the Assembly of the Gods.The Old Testament took pains to make clear that Man was neither a god nor from the heavens."TheHeavens are the Heavens of the Lord, unto Mankind Earth He hath given." The new being was called"the Adam" because he was created of the adama, the Earth's soil.He was, in other words, "theEarthling."Lacking only certain "knowing" and a divine span of life, the Adam was in all other respects created inthe image (selem) and likeness (dmut) of his Creator(s).The use of both terms in the text was meant toleave no doubt that Man was similar to the God(s) both physically and emotionally, externally andinternally.In all ancient pictorial depictions of gods and men, this physical likeness is evident.Although thebiblical admonition against the worship of pagan images gave rise to the notion that the Hebrew Godhad neither image nor likeness, not only the Genesis tale but other biblical reports attest to the contrary.The God of the ancient Hebrews could be seen face-to-face, could be wrestled with, could be heard andspoken to; he had a head and feet, hands and fingers, and a waist.The biblical God and his emissarieslooked like men and acted like men - because men were created to look like and act like the gods.But in this very simplicity lies a great mystery.How could a new creature possibly be a virtual physical,mental, and emotional replica of the Nefilim? How, indeed, was Man created?The Western world was long wedded to the notion that, created deliberately, Man was put upon Earth tosubdue it and have dominion over all other creatures.Then, in November 1859, an English naturalist bythe name of Charles Darwin published a treatise called On the Origin of Species by Means of NaturalSelection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life.Summing up nearly thirty yearsof research, the book added to earlier thoughts about natural evolution the concept of natural selection asa consequence of the struggle of all species - of plant and animal alike - for existence.The Christian world had been jostled earlier when, from 1788 on, noted geologists had begun to expresstheir belief that Earth was of great antiquity, much, much greater than the roughly 5,500 years of theHebrew calendar.Nor was the concept of evolution as such the explosive: Earlier scholars had notedsuch a process, and Greek scholars as far back as the fourth century B.C.compiled data on the evolutionof animal and plant life.Darwin's shattering bombshell was the conclusion that all living things - Man included - were productsof evolution.Man, contrary to the then-held belief, was not generated spontaneously.The initial reaction of the Church was violent.But as the scientific facts regarding Earth's true age,evolution, genetics, and other biological and anthropological studies came to light, the Church's criticismwas muted.It seemed at last that the very words of the Old Testament made the tale of the OldTestament indefensible; for how could a God who has no corporal body and who is universally alonesay, "Let us make Man in our image, after our likeness?"But are we really nothing more than "naked apes"? Is the monkey just an evolutionary arm's length awayfrom us, and the tree shrew just a human who has yet to lose his tail and stand erect?As we showed at the very beginning of this book, modern scientists have come to question the simpletheories.Evolution can explain the general course of events that caused life and life's forms to developon Earth, from the simplest one-celled creature to Man.But evolution cannot account for the appearanceof Homo sapiens, which happened virtually overnight in terms of the millions of years evolutionrequires, and with no evidence of earlier stages that would indicate a gradual change from Homo erectus.The hominid of the genus Homo is a product of evolution.But Homo sapiens is the product of somesudden, revolutionary event.He appeared inexplicably some 300,000 years ago, millions of years toosoon.The scholars have no explanation.But we do.The Sumerian and Babylonian texts do.The OldTestament does.Homo sapiens - modern Man - was brought about by the ancient gods.The Mesopotamian texts, fortunately, provide a clear statement regarding the time when Man wascreated.The story of the toil and ensuing mutiny of the Anunnaki informs us that "for 40 periods theysuffered the work, day and night"; the long years of their toil are dramatized by repetitious verses.For 10 periods they suffered the toil;For 20 periods they suffered the toil;For 30 periods they suffered the toil;For 40 periods they suffered the toil.The ancient text uses the term ma to denote "period," and most scholars have translated this as "year."But the term had the connotation of "something that completes itself and then repeats itself." To men onEarth, one year equals one complete orbit of Earth around the Sun [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]