The Ancient Tradition

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Music

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You’re listening to the Ancient Tradition. A Wonk Media Production. Music provided by Joseph McDade. He is your host, Dr. Jack Logan.

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Welcome to today’s edition of the ancient tradition. I’m your host, Jack Logan. Welcome to all of you. Welcome back. If you’re a new listener, we welcome you to the program. We’re so glad to have you join us. We’ve got a great program today. It’s titled the Council of the Gods. And for you new listeners on this program, we’ve been digging deep into the written records of the ancient world to see if we can’t.

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reconstruct the original religious tradition that the ancients tell us was given to human beings by God or a Supreme Being from the very beginning from the dawn of time Now you might be asking yourself. How could we possibly do this? Well, the ancient world is brimming with ancient texts and on this program We dive into those texts and we search for themes We’re looking for the themes or the motifs that we can find that show up time and time again in the ancient record

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And then when we find one that we can trace all the way back to the dawn of time, then we know we have something special. Something that tells us what was taught to human beings in this original religious tradition. And I call those particular themes the stubborn bits, the bits that persist in the human record, despite centuries of alterations, variations, innovations, and even deterioration.

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For example, for the past couple of episodes, we’ve been discussing the creation. The ancients placed in an extraordinary amount of importance on the creation, so we decided to start there. And so far, we’ve identified three stubborn bits that seem to show up time and time again in the ancient record. And I’ve coined these motifs, the pillars of creation. And they include so far, number one, that before the creation took place, the universe was made up.

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of an infinite mass of unorganized lifeless elements, and they’re described symbolically by the ancients as a primordial ocean or sea. Number two, God infused something from his essence, which is described symbolically by the ancients as a brooding wind into the unorganized lifeless primordial elements, which prepared the elements

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for life and creation. And number three, the ancient record tells us a demonic evil force dwelt in the depths of the unorganized lifeless primordial waters. And this is described symbolically by the ancients as an impressive sea monster or sea serpent. And this last pillar is actually a pretty good example. The description of a sea monster lurking in the filthy sludge at the bottom of the primordial ocean.

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is a good example of a stubborn bit. A number of ancient myths and theologies tell us of a terrible sea monster living in the waters. In fact, in our last episode, I quoted Oliver Crimin, who’s the senior curator of fish at the Natural History Museum in London, and he said this, quote, “‘Sea serpent myths go back into antiquity to a point in time we can’t even discern.'”

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So we can trace this idea or motif all the way back really to the dawn of time. The myths and theologies that tell us about this sea monster, okay, they vary in terms of details, like how many heads it had or which ocean it lived in or how it was eventually slain. But they all agree that some sort of sea monster lived in the waters and that’s a stubborn bit.

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So today we’re gonna discuss another stubborn bit, a theme that we can trace back to the earliest primeval history, the Council of the Gods. This idea actually persists into the modern age, believe it or not, but it’s in a very deteriorated form and it shows up in blockbuster films. And you think about this, we can look at the Marvel universe, Thor, Love and Thunder, in there it features Zeus.

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who’s played by Russell Crowe. They show him enthroned governing a council of gods. We can also see this like in the Star Wars saga, which shows the grand Jedi master presiding over a body of Jedis who govern the Jedi order, known as the Jedi High Council. So today we’re gonna dive into the ancient record and learn everything that we can about this council of the gods that existed before the earth

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If you’ve ever wondered what the heavens are like or what’s going on there, this is a great place to start. We’re gonna learn a great deal today from the ancients about how the heavens are organized and how God operates. So let’s jump in. Paul B. Sumner, who’s out of Pepperdine University, actually wrote his master’s thesis on the Divine Council. So I want to start with a quote from him of what kind of is an introduction to this. He says, quote,

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Divine assemblies were a common feature of all the major ancient cultures, Israelite, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Canaan. Paternal gods sitting in council with their children, grandchildren, visors, courtiers, and numerous soldiers was the standard conception of the organization and function of the divine world. These gods held council sessions

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to debate plans of action and to vote on propositions, all to administer the cosmos. The assembly edicts were then executed by the appropriate member deities. Although the names, rituals, and myths might vary, the overall conception of the heavenly world in the ancient Near East was that a divine government existed.

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So from this we can see that the divine council is clearly one of these stubborn bits. We actually find reference to a council or an assembly of gods in the earliest ancient writings that date to the third millennium BC in Sumer in Egypt and the second millennium BC in Mesopotamia and Ugarit. So let’s start with Sumer, one of the cradles of civilization and see what we can’t learn.

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Thordkull Jacobson, a renowned Danish historian who specialized in Assyriology and Sumerian literature, he wrote a book on the divine council in Sumer. It’s called The Treasures of Darkness, a History of Mesopotamian Religion. And this is what he says, quote, the highest authority in the Mesopotamian universe was the assembly of the gods. It met when occasion arose in Nippur in the corner of the forecourt of Ikur.

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Ikor was Enlil, the god Enlil’s temple there, called Ubsuukina. Presiding over the assembly was the god of heaven, An. That’s spelled A-N. The gods would bind themselves by oath to abide by the decisions the assembly might make. Proposals were then placed before them and voted upon, each god indicating assent by saying, heem, which means so be it.

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can see these characteristics in a text known as the Lament for Ur and this is dated to about 2000 BC. If you’re interested in seeing what it looks like it’s currently housed in the Louvre in Paris. In this text the goddess Nengal pleads to the council of the gods not to destroy her city Ur. So as I read this imagine this goddess, the goddess Nengal, standing before the council of gods

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in the forecourt of the temple of Ikor, which literally means mountain house. And interestingly, it was also known, this temple is also known as the mooring rope of heaven and earth, the rope that tied heaven and earth together. And keep that little tidbit in your back pocket, because we’re going to hit on that in a couple of months. It’s very important. I’m going to read it all the way through once and then read it again and stop here and there to kind of explain parts of the text. Okay.

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So the goddess Nengal here is talking, she’s addressing the council. It reads, “‘Then verily to the assembly, “‘where the crowd had not yet risen, “‘while the Anunnaki binding themselves “‘to uphold the decision were still seated. “‘I dragged my feet and I stretched out my arms. “‘Truly I shed my tears in front of An.'” Okay, so we need to understand who the Anunnaki are. And to do that,

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First, we’ve got to understand who An is. An is the highest ranked among the gods. He’s the highest ranked god. As Jacobson says, he is quote, the fountainhead of all authority and authoritative commands, whether parental, lordly or royal. He is the power that lifts existence out of chaos and anarchy and makes it an organized whole.

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Listen to this description of the god An in the Isna Larsa period. And this is this dates to around 2000 to 1800 BC. And this is the description they give of this god An. Quote, the exalted Lord, the leader, the skillful officiant, the supreme one, the one with head held high, the surpassing one, the fukund breed bull of honored name, greatly imbued with awe, whose grandly proclaimed decrees.

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no none who can quash them. Ascended step by step the pure mountain of his office, took his seat on the throne dais on king of the gods. So there’s important parts of his description here. He’s described as a bull, which I’ll explain in just a second, but notice that he has an honored name. There’s that importance of naming again that we see. He’s a skillful officiant. So as a political role that he has, he’s very good at it.

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that what I want to stress here is that An does not reign as king of the gods alone. He’s married to the goddess Ki-K-I or Kishar, his queen. They’re the parents, the father and mother of all the gods, which is one of the reasons he’s envisioned as a fuchund breed bull. He’s the ancestor of the gods. He’s full of fertility.

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all things conform to his will. And that’s that divine utterance again. He’s the father of and the king over the council of the gods. Okay, so now that we have an idea who Anu is, then what is the Anunnaki? Well, the Anunnaki actually means princely offspring or the offspring of An. So the Anunnaki are the royal offspring of the supreme god An and his wife, of course.

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They are on and keys children, their grandchildren, and their great grandchildren. These are the gods. The same text I just read to you from the Isna’l-Arsa period continues by saying quote, the Anunnaki, the gods in their entirety gathered to him at the place of decision-making. So these gods are gathering together. So from this passage, it’s pretty clear that the Anunnaki, An’s children and posterity, made up either a formidable part of the council of the gods,

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or they were the actual council of the gods, all of his children. So back to the original text, the lament of Ur. Truly with the goddess Ningal speaking to the council, truly I shed my tears in front of An. Truly I myself mourned in front of Enlil that its inhabitants be killed. So let’s take a second here and talk about who Enlil is. Enlil is one of the gods and he’s next in rank to An.

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to the supreme God on. And interestingly, considering the episode that we did on the incomprehensible brooding wind, episode number 13, and Lil means Lord of Wind. In particular, he represents the moist winds that bring about the fertility of life of spring. And all of that corresponds really nicely to everything that we said in episode number 13 of the power of the wind to transform the primordial elements.

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from a lifeless state to one of life and creation. So we’re getting those same motifs here in the god Enlil. Enlil is the firstborn princely son of An. And listen to this hymn, the hymn to Enlil, and it’s dated to the late third millennium. And listen to how they describe the god Enlil. When he shines on the throne dais in his temple Imhersog.

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Like the rainbow, he too circles the heavens. Like a floating cloud, he goes his own way. He is the one prince of heaven, the only great one of earth. He is the exalted tutelary, which is like the guardian or protector, God of the Anunnaki. Paul Sumner notes, in some texts, An’s headship seems to be of past to his eldest son, and Lil.

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Sometimes we talk about An heading up the council of the gods and then it seems to be passed on to Enlil and he heads up the council of the gods. The hymn continues, you Lord Enlil who are Lord, God and King, who are the judge and decision maker of the universe, your noble word is as weighty as heaven. See, there’s that divine entrance again, the noble word. You know no opposition. At your word, all the Anuna gods are hushed. So.

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Anuna is Anunaki again. So let’s go back to the original text, the lament of Ur, and listen to the role of the divine council in these lines. This is Ningal, the goddess speaking again. May Ur not be destroyed. So she’s pleading. Don’t destroy my city, Ur. I said indeed to them. And may its people not be killed. I said indeed to them. But Ah never bent towards those words. Did soothe my heart. Behold.

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They gave instruction that the city be destroyed. By they, she’s talking about the divine council. The divine council had decided that the city Ur was going to be destroyed. Behold, they gave instruction that Ur be destroyed, and as its destiny decreed, that its inhabitants be killed. So this council had decided together that the inhabitants in Ur, or the city of Ur, would be destroyed, and they decided this by decree.

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So we’re already getting an idea of some of the functions of this divine council. We learned quite a bit about what happens in the heavens from these passages. So let’s take a closer look here. First, I know there are many modern day conceptions of God as a formless divine essence that doesn’t reside anywhere but resides everywhere, that God isn’t anybody but everybody and that God is a concept and not a person, but

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That is just not what the ancients taught. The ancients taught that God resided in a particular place in the heavens. He had a home. In these passages, the Supreme God Anu resides in a mountain. The passage says, quote, An, the exalted Lord, the leader, ascended step by step the pure mountain of his office.

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We’ve pointed out several times in this podcast that mountains are symbolic representations of God’s temple, be it God’s temple in heaven or his temple on earth. In the ancients, wherever we find them, be they in Egypt or Mesopotamia, Cana, Japan, Cambodia, India, Central America, used mountains to symbolize God’s abode. We also saw this in our very first episode when we looked at the

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Aboriginal tribes in Australia and New South Wales, if you remember that, if you haven’t listened to that episode, give it a listen, where they describe Bayami living in a mountain, a floral, beautiful, floral mountain. So we’re seeing this concept or motif really, literally all over the world. And we’re gonna talk about this more in coming weeks. So we’ll come back to it. The ancients used a physical mountain to symbolically represent the place where God abides. And they did this for…

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lot of reasons and I want to just hit on two today. Okay so the first is that the ancients like they do with most of their symbols are using something tangible from the physical world that human beings can relate with but they’re doing this to teach us something about the spiritual realm. So we have to understand what this symbol of a mountain means and why they’re equating it with God’s temple. So in this case the ancients are using the mountain in part to emphasize its height.

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height of a mountain actually represents holiness. So to ascend or climb is to become more holy and to fall or to descend is to become less holy or unholy. To ascend the mountain symbolically represents that as one climbs one becomes holier and holier. One becomes more like God until they reach the summit of the mountain where they’re actually like God. To call God the high God

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is akin to emphasizing the superlative nature of his holiness, to say that he is the high God. And of course, God resides on the summit of the mountain because he is the embodiment of holiness. The symbolism of the mountain temple was so much a part of the fabric of Mesopotamians that they actually built their temples to look like mountains. And they call their temples ziggurats. If you’ve never seen one before, go Google it and you’ll

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clearly see this mountain motif. And likewise, to descend to the depths, like where the terrible sea monster resides and in the filthy bottom of the Primordial Waters, symbolically represents that one has fallen or has become more and more unholy until he, at the depths of the sea, has become the opposite of God, has become the embodiment of unholiness, just like what is said of the hideous sea serpent,

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who the ancients describe as evil and demonic. Pretty much anytime the ancients refer to us ascending or descending to the depths, they’re symbolically stressing something about the level of that individual’s holiness or unholiness. Second, whether God actually lives on the summit of a celestial mountain, I really don’t know. But I’m really confident.

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that what the ancients are teaching us here is that God resides in a place in the heavens that is supernally holy. This mountain symbolism implies that not everything in the heavens is supernally holy. There are places where God does not reside, like farther down the mountain where things are less and less holy. If this were not the case, then there would be no reason for the ancients to use mountain symbolism.

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to represent where God resides. Now, where God resides, where he lives, his abode is in the holiest place. All right, I’ve strayed a little bit from my main point here, but all of this is to say that the ancients taught that God has an actual residence in the heavens, in a temple, and that where God resides is different. It’s distinct from the rest of the heavens by way of its supernal level of holiness.

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The second thing we learn from these passages is that in God’s temple, in the holiest part of the heavens, he sits on a throne. The passage we read about the God on said, quote, the exalted Lord, the leader ascended step by step. The pure mountain of his office took seat on his great throne. Dias on King of the gods. Wow. There there’s a lot going on here.

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the God of heaven sits on a throne dais. Now, a throne dais is a throne on a raised platform. And this throne, of course, indicates that the God of heaven is a king. It even says that right in the passage that he is the king of the gods. So what are we to understand by this? Well, in the world that we live in, monarchy is a form of civil government.

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There are all types of civil governments in the world that we could choose from. There’s oligarchies, aristocracies, democracies, republics, confederations, feudalism, socialism, tyrants. We could go on and on. There’s just so many to choose from. But in this passage, it’s telling us that there is a civil government in heaven. A civil government. Think on that for a minute. I’d never really given much thought to the need for a civil government in the heavens.

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You know, why would God need to form a government in the heavens? And the only thing I can surmise is that, like here on earth, not everybody is on board with God’s principles of righteousness. So there would be some need to exercise civil governance to establish order even in the heavens. And here, the ancients are telling us that that form of civil government in the heavens isn’t a democratic republic. It’s not a socialist government.

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It’s not a confederacy, it’s a divine monarchy. A government headed by a divine monarch. And maybe you’d never given this a lot of thought either, but think on it for a minute, and you’ll recognize that within the Judeo-Christian tradition, the heavens are often referred to as the kingdom of God. And that makes sense now. Now that we recognize that a divine monarch is in operation of the heavens.

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The third thing that we learn from these passages is that the divine monarch is somewhat different from most earthly monarchies because God, the supreme monarch, doesn’t appear to operate unilaterally. So from what we see from these passages, God does not act alone and then command everyone to do what he says. Rather, we see that God holds a council. He’s holding a council or assembly of the gods where God seeks out the other gods’

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and then the council votes on how the kingdom should be governed. Now this is super interesting. An all-powerful, all-knowing God seeking out the opinions and ideas and thoughts from other gods. I mean there’s just so much to think about here. Why would God do this? And how would this benefit governance? You know, I don’t know all the answers to these questions, but I definitely think that they’re worth thinking about.

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And let’s not forget that the gods who make up the Anunnaki are An’s offspring. That’s literally what Anunnaki means. These are his children, his family, his children’s children, his grandchildren. So An is holding a council with his children. And I think that’s very interesting. The Mesopotamian text describes the council of the gods as a decision-making body.

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And the texts show how the divine council wrestles over decisions about all sorts of issues. Sometimes it’s over who is responsible for which aspects of the creation. Other times like we saw in the Lament of Ur, it’s over what to do with evil cities. And like we’ll see in the Enuma Elish, over who is willing to fight the sea dragon Tiamat. Jacobson writes that the divine council quote,

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on wrongdoers, human and divine. And it was the authority that elected and deposed officers such as kings, human and divine. This body was the body that distributed assignments among the gods. Assignments are roles that are often referred to in these texts as destinies. Fourth, we really can’t ignore the elephant in the room here. These texts speak of a council of gods.

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I’ve listened to some of what Michael Heiser has said. He’s written and said a lot about the Council of the Gods in the biblical texts. And I’m not sure how familiar he is with the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Ugaritic texts. And I’ve read several others too. These are primarily adherents of the Judeo-Christian tradition who try and use all kinds of intellectual gymnastics to try and convince us that what these texts are saying, they’re not really saying. They try to tell us that these texts are not really talking about.

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gods in the plural form because in traditional Christianity it’s understood that there’s only one god. So they try and convince us that really these texts are talking about a council of like semi-divine gods or they’re just a host of heaven or they’re angels. They want to erase gods plural from these texts. And hey maybe the divine council does include angels or beings of

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but the texts, lots of them, literally say, this is a council of gods, plural. Even the texts in the biblical canon use Elohim, the plural form of God, which means gods. That’s what these texts actually say. And let me remind you that we can trace these texts back to the dawn of civilization. I know this is gonna sound heretical to many of you, but.

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From what we can see in the ancient texts, strict monotheism shows up much later. We’ll dive into this more in our next episode, so don’t hang up the phone just yet if you don’t like what you’re hearing. In that episode, we’ll dive into the biblical texts that refer to the council of the gods, and then we’ll break it all down for you. And this brings me to the fifth thing that we learned from these texts. These texts indicate there is a rank order of some type among the gods. For starters,

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the council of the gods texts, whether in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Cana, or among the Israelites or early Christians tell us that civil government in the heavens is patriarchal. Now, don’t throw bricks just yet if you don’t like what you’re hearing, because the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Canaanite texts also all indicate that the supreme monarch ruled with his wife a queen. Just like we see among earthly kings, like King Charles and his wife, Queen.

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In Mesopotamia, the supreme monarch, On, ruled with his wife, Key. In Egypt, the supreme monarch, Ra, ruled with his wife, Hathor. In Cana, the supreme monarch, El, ruled with his wife, Asherah. So you get the picture. In the primary episode on the Enuma Elish, which I hope several of you had a chance to listen to, we saw how the Enuma Elish starts out with a genealogy of the generations of the gods.

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And they do this because it emphasizes the line of succession among heavenly kings, from father to firstborn son to father to firstborn son. We saw that here too, where On is the supreme monarch, but that his son, his firstborn son, and Lil is also made a king. So we kind of surmise from these texts that there are many kings in the heavens who are either co-regents,

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with their father and are subordinate to their fathers who are kings over them. But as we just mentioned, these heavenly kings also reign with their wives who are queens. At this point you might be thinking to yourself, okay, all of this sounds too much like the way earthly kingship is ordered on earth. Among earthly kings we see kings and queens ruling together. The line of succession is kept within the family. The first line of succession goes to the firstborn son.

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There are multiple kings over different nations, states, et cetera, et cetera. And you’d be right. So you might be thinking, hey, the ancients just made up all of this stuff to legitimize their own family line of kings. And maybe you’re right, maybe they did, but maybe they didn’t. Remember the Sumerian king list directly says that kingship as a form of civil government, quote, descended.

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from heaven. In other words, the Sumerians are telling us that earthly kingship was modeled after the order of kingship in the heavens and not the other way around. They were expected to model this divine government that took place in the heavens here on earth. And from my research, I found the theology of kingship because there is a theology associated with kingship.

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that it’s far, far more sophisticated and profound in its depth than one could ever imagine. So much so that I find it difficult to believe that a Mesopotamian made it all up just as a way to legitimize his rule. And if you were that Mesopotamian, would you have made a plan that involved sharing your power with a council? Why not make something up that legitimizes your total and complete control over the kingdom? One where you didn’t have to answer to anyone.

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Like all things religious, where you come down on this is a matter of faith. And I believe knowledge can help build faith, which is why I’ve spent so much time studying these ancient texts and why I’ve put together this podcast. If you’re interested in learning more about the theology of kingship, to which I’ve just referred, I started going through some of it during the coronation of King Charles the third and Queen Camilla, and you can find those episodes on this podcast, but as the podcast progresses,

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we’re going to get more into the theology of kingship because we are really far from done with that. The rank order of gods in these texts points more to henotheism than polytheism. Henotheism is the worship of a primary god or gods, but it also doesn’t deny the existence of other gods. And you’ll see as this podcast continues that within almost all pantheons, one of the gods is established as the supreme monarch. The high god or the god.

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the most high God, which is language that is much more Hinotheistic than Polytheistic. In the text we’ve just read, the King of the Gods presides over the Council of Gods in a post-creation context. The earth has already been created. But in the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation epic, the entire epic takes place before the creation. We see the Council of the Gods

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deliberating over what to do about the rebellion of the sea serpent Tiamat and her consort Kingu. In this passage, the council is looking for a god who is willing to do battle against the terrifying Tiamat. And so I’m going to be reading from tablet two and this is the Oxford translation by Stephanie Daly. In this passage, the god Ea has slain Tiamat’s consort Apsu.

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He’s asked by his father, the god Anshar, to go back and slay Tiamat. Ea tries, but the sea serpent Tiamat is just too much for him. In this passage, the god Ea is relaying to his grandfather, the king of the gods, god Anshar, his experience with the terrifying sea monster Tiamat, and it reads, “‘My father, Tiamat’s actions were too much for me. I searched for her course,

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but my spell was not equal to her. Now, spell is that divine under its again. Her strength is mighty. She is completely terrifying. Her crowd is too powerful. Nobody could defy her. Her noise never lessens. It was too loud for me. I feared her shout. I turned back. But father, you must not relax. You must send someone else to her. You must disband her regiments.

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confuse her advice before she can impose her power on us. So you can just feel his pleading, I can’t beat her, but please send somebody who can. At this point in the text, the god, the king of the gods, Anshar doesn’t know what to do. So he calls the council of the gods together. It reads, Anshar was speechless and stared at the ground. He gnashed his teeth and shook his head in despair at Ea. Now the Igigi,

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Now the Igigi is actually part of the council of the gods. It’s the younger generation of gods and the Anunnaki are the older generation. So we have the Igigi assembled. Now the Igigi assembled all the Anuki. They sat silently for a while, tight lipped. Finally they spoke. Will no other god come forward? Is fate fixed? So they’re looking for a god to challenge the sea serpent.

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but nobody has come forward. It continues, then Ea from his secret dwelling called the perfect one of Anshar, father of the gods, whose heart is perfect like a fellow citizen or countryman, the mighty heir who was to be his father’s companion. So here Ea has an idea. The god Ea says, what about the mighty heir, the one who’s perfect? Well, who might this heir be? Well, it’s the son.

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the heir in the line of succession, the God who is next in line to be the King of the Gods, his name is Marduk and it is Aes son. So note here, we’re starting to see a very close connection between the slaying of the dragon and kingship. The mighty heir who was to be his father’s champion, who rushes fearlessly into battle, Marduk the hero, he told him his innermost design saying,

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Oh, Marduk, take my advice. Listen to your father. You are the son who sets his heart at rest. Approach Anshar, drawing near to him, and make your voice heard. Stand your ground. He will be calmed by your sight. The Lord Marduk rejoiced at the word of his father, and he approached and stood before Anshar, which is his grandfather. Anshar looked at him, and his heart was filled with

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He kissed him on the lips and put away his trepidation. So here Aya is telling Marduk, oh Marduk you’re the one, you’re the one that’s gonna be able to slay the dragon here. You’re the one we’ve been looking for. You will make the king of the gods so happy. At this point Marduk addresses the king of the gods, his grandfather Anshar. Father, don’t stay so silent. Open your lips. Let me go.

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and let me fulfill your heart’s desire. Anshar, don’t stay so silent. Open your lips, let me go, and let me fulfill your heart’s desire. So the king of the gods, Anshar, he’s not talking. My guess is he’s really contemplating what’s going on here. Here’s his beloved grandson, who is willing to go and battle against this ferocious, hideous monster. And he’s probably thinking through here of the possible wounds

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his son could incur by going to battle. Here, Anshar, the king of the gods addresses Marduk. And keep in mind that all of this is taking place in the council of the gods. So this is the king of the gods speaking. What kind of man has ordered you out to this war? My son, don’t you realize that it is Tiamat who will advance against you with arms? So we see here Anshar’s genuine concern for his son, grandson Marduk.

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Marduk answered, father, my creator rejoice and be glad. You shall soon set your foot upon the neck of Tiamat. Ansar replied, then go son, knowing all wisdom. Well Tiamat with your pure spell, which is that divine utterance. The Lord Marduk rejoiced at the word of his father. His heart was glad and he addressed his father, Lord of the gods, fate of the great gods.

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If indeed I am to be your champion, if I am to defeat Tiamat and save your lives, convene the council, name a special fate, sit joyfully together in Ibshu Ukenaku.” All right, wow. So this assembly that we have, it looks like not everyone’s there or it’s not an official meeting of the assembly. It’s not quite sure. So here Marduk’s saying, hey, if I’m the one that you have chosen to…

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slay the dragon, then let’s convene an actual official of council here and have them assign this responsibility to me, which apparently, you know, the council must do. After that, we will all sit joyfully together. Now, the Ibushi Ukinaku is actually the name of the divine assembly hall where the council of the gods met together in the temple. So at this point, the king of the gods, Anshara, who presides over the council of the gods, calls for an official

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And here he is speaking to one of his advisors. Oh, kaka, visor who pleases me, have the gods my fathers brought before me. Let all of the gods be brought to me. Let there be conversation. Let them sit at a banquet. Let them eat grain. Let them drink choice wine. And that’s kind of interesting there, where you’ve got bread and wine going on. And then let them decree a destiny for Marduk, their champion.

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So Kaka, Anshar’s advisor, goes out, calls the gods to an official meeting while all the time declaring how the vicious Tiamat has readied her terrible army for battle. And it’s here that Kaka tells the gods a little more about Marduk. He’s speaking here in behalf of the king of the gods, Anshar, and it reads, “‘I sent Anu, but he was unable to face her. “‘Nudimud, whose ea panicked and turned back,

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then Marduk, sage of the gods, your son, came forward. He wanted of his own free will to confront Tiamat. He addressed his words to me. If indeed I am to be your champion to defeat Tiamat and save your lives, convene the council, name a special fate. So at this point, the visor Kakad petitions the gods to hurry up and get the council together.

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to decree or which I think is kind of like a vote, decree Marduk’s assignment or role as the one that’s gonna take the battle to Tiamat. He says, hurry and decree your destiny for him quickly so that he may go and face your formidable enemy. At this point then the council of gods assembled together. It reads, they milled around and then came all the great gods who fixed the fates, entered into Anshar’s presence.

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and was filled with joy. So recall here that the king of the gods, Ansar is seated on a throne. So the council enters into the presence of the king of the gods. It’s interesting the words they use there entered into Ansar’s presence. Each kissed the other in the assembly. There was conversation, they sat at the banquet and they ate grain and they drank choice wine. And they decreed.

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destiny for Marduk their champion and he took up residence as ruler before his fathers. It’s clear from the text here that at this point that the council of the gods decree Marduk’s destiny or agree that yes Marduk is the one chosen to battle against Tiamat and then he’s taken up residence as ruler. So we’re starting to see a connection between that kingship.

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and the conquering of the Leviathan or of chaos. The council says of Marduk, your destiny is unequaled. Your word has the power of Anu. Oh Marduk, you are honored among the great gods. Your destiny is unequaled. Your word has the power of Anu. See we’re getting the word here again. You see that in the divine utterance that Marduk’s ability to command the elements and to enact his

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impressive and from this day onwards your command shall not be altered. Yours is the power to exalt and abase. May your utterance be law. So we’re getting that civil order here too. Your word never be falsified. Omar Duke you are our champion. We hereby give you sovereignty over all of the whole universe. Sit in the

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preeminent. At this point in the epic something very interesting happens. The council of the gods having just applauded Marduk’s ability to divinely utter challenge him to demonstrate his ability by causing something to form. So we’re getting some cosmogony things going on here about his ability to create. They want him to create something via divine utterance.

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They’re sort of testing him to see if he can take the primordial waters, the chaotic lifeless elements, which are personified by Tiamat, and command the elements to take form, to impose order on them, to create something. This is fascinating, listen to this. And then they addressed Farduk, their son. May you decree, O Lord, impress the gods. May your decree, O Lord, impress the gods.

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Command to destroy and to recreate and let it be so. Speak and let the constellation vanish. Speak it again and let the constellation reappear. He spoke and at his word, the constellation vanished. He spoke to it again and the constellation was recreated. The council of the gods having just witnessed Marduk’s ability to command the lifeless elements.

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then do something very interesting. Listen to what they do. When the gods, his fathers, saw how effective his utterance was, they rejoiced. They proclaimed, Marduk is king. They invested him with scepter, throne, and staff of office. In these lines, it looks like the council of the gods is making Marduk a king, but that actually may not be the case because from what we see later in the text,

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Marduk is officially crowned or coronated only after he has slain Tiamat the Leviathan. So here this must be some sort of preliminary preparation for his eventual kingship. It’s preparing him for that kingship that will come. But notice how in this epic we’re starting to see a tight connection between divine utterance, which among other things is the power to create.

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conquer chaos and command the elements to obey his commander to form which is creation and kingship and at this point in the text the council of the gods then do something else really interesting they endow Marduk with weapons so that he can successfully conquer the Leviathan Tiamat it reads they give him an unfacable weapon to crush the foe go and cut off the life of Tiamat

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Let the winds bear her blood to us as good news. Okay, now did you catch that? If you’re a regular listener, I hope you caught that. One of the weapons that they gave Marduk to battle and destroy Tiamat was wind. The gods, his fathers, gave him wind. Okay, it continues. The gods, his fathers, thus decreed the destiny of the Lord.

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and sent him on the path of peace and obedience. So here, the council then, whether they voted or stood and said, “‘Him,’ here the gods then decreed his destiny. They elected him to be the one to take on Tiamat. After Marduk successfully conquers Tiamat, the sea serpent, then the council of the gods reconvene and the text reads, and this is from tablet five, “‘Laamu and Laamu,’ these were some of the oldest gods,

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and all his fathers, so we’re talking about all of his ancestors and his family, embraced him. Now this is Marduk after he’s come back victorious from slaying the Leviathan. And Anshar the king proclaimed that there should be a reception for him. Anu and Lil and Aya each presented him with gifts. Damkina, his mother, exclaimed with joy at him. I love that. I think it’s really interesting that his

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Marduk’s mother is mentioned here. Here she’s exclaiming joy that he was able to slay the dragon. The Agigi assembled and all of them did obeisance to him. The Anunnaki, each and every one, kissed his feet. The whole assembly collected together to prostrate themselves. All right, and just to vision this, you can see this, this entire council of gods.

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Marduk walks in, he is victorious over the horrendous Leviathan. And the entire council of gods prostrate themselves and kiss his feet. That’s pretty powerful. They took off his clothes, which were enveloped in the dust of combat. With Cyprus, they sprinkled his body. This is very interesting here. Cyprus, right, is the tree. The Cyprus is actually…

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the holy tree or the tree of life. So they’re sprinkling something of this tree on his body and that doesn’t make much sense to sprinkle a tree. So I think really what they’re saying here is an anointing is taking place. They’re taking fragrance of a tree that’s been infused into the anointing oil and they’re sprinkling his body. He put on a princely garment, a royal aura, a splendid crown.

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He took up a mace and grasped it in his right hand. Lamu and Laamu made their voices heard and spoke to the Igigi. And this is what they said. Previously Marduk was just our beloved son, but now he is our king. Take heed of his command. Next, they spoke and proclaimed in the unison. So this is the entire, this sounds like, I don’t know if it’s just Lamu and Laamu.

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or it’s the entire divine council. They proclaim in unison, Lugal dimmer on Kiah is his name. Trust in him. So this is pretty interesting. Having come off Victor over the Leviathan, the divine council officially coordinates Marduk, their king. They appear to anoint him. They place royal robes on him. And then they give him the emblems of kingship. And then,

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Last of all, they give him a new name. His new name, Lugal Demer Ankiah, means King of the Gods of Heaven and Earth. He is the King of all things. If you’re an astute listener, you may have noticed some parallels here between this account in the Mesopotamian record and the Christian account of Christ.

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slaying the dragon in St. John’s Revelation. Revelation chapter 13 verse 1 says, And he stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. So we’re seeing the Leviathan here and

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Remember the name, the name is the essence of what the beast is, it’s blasphemy. Verse seven, and it was given on him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. So this, there’s the spiritual connotations here that this serpent, this Leviathan, this terrible monster has it on his war path to destroy the saints.

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Then in Hebrews chapter two verse 14, and this is speaking of Christ’s sacrifice, it reads quote, that through death, he, speaking of Christ, might destroy him, the dragon that had the power of death. That is the devil. And in the same chapter, in Hebrews chapter two, Christ is coronated a king. In the same chapter of which we talk about how his sacrifice is what led to the death of the dragon.

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And then we see his coronation, it reads, and this is speaking of God the Father coronating Christ the Son as King. It says, quote, “‘Thou crownedest Him with glory and honor, “‘and didst set Him over the works of thy hands.'” So just like we saw in the Enuma Elish, where Marduk slays the dragon and is then crowned a king by the gods in the divine council, here in Hebrews,

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Christ destroys the dragon and is crowned a king by his father, God the Father. And don’t forget, like we learned in the last episode, Christ wears the slain golden Leviathan in the form of a sash around his waist as part of his high priestly vestments, a symbolic reminder of his victory over the terrible dragon. The underlying implications here, the underlying spiritual implications here,

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between vanquishing the awful dragon and the successive coronation as a king is really quite stunning if we only give it a little thought. So you might want to think on that. And if these two accounts are in any way connected, which I maintain they are by way of the ancient tradition, then we’ve just learned that a divine council played an intricate role in electing Marduk or Christ.

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to be the one to slay the dragon and to be the one that would be king. And let’s not forget that Marduk’s triumph over Tiamat sets the stage for the creation of the earth. There’s so much more I’d like to comment on here, but it will take us way too far afield from today’s subject matter, which is.

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why I started putting together an explanation and commentary series on the enuma aliche. And I released the first episode this week. Many of you saw that. So as time permits, I’ll release an explanation and commentary on the rest of the enuma aliche tablets, but those I’m going to release on our sister podcast, the ancient tradition audio writ. So you’ll be able to find them there. That wraps up this edition of the ancient tradition. In our next episode, we’ll start where we left off here.

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and will examine the presence of the Council of the Gods in the biblical canon and its connection to the cosmogony. I’ll leave you there. Remember in the words of William Shakespeare, knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. I’m Jack Logan.

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You’ve been listening to the Ancient Tradition. A Wonk Media Production.