Genesis have some histories similar to sumerian myths and these were wrote way before bible.( like creation of adam, also noah, cain and abel).
how to explain it as a christian?
In front of the challenge constituted by the scientific progress and the archaeological discoveries, the Church had to redefine exegesis and the status of the Bible. In order to do that, the historical-critical method was privileged for the exegeses. This method was already used in the Antiquity by Greek commentators of classical literature and later, by fathers of the Church, like Origen, Jerome or Augustine, for example. But it was really established as a conscious method with the priest Richard Simon (1638-1712) and later, Jean Astruc (1684-1766). It was greatly developed from the XIXth century. In fact, for example, because of the discovery that the Biblical text could have been inspired by other texts of the ancient Middle East, the text of the Genesis being then, probably inspired by Babylonian literature, exegesis had to redefine its approach, considering an internal criticism permitting a literary analysis and an external criticism, placing the text into History.
This method analyses the biblical text the same way it analyses other texts of the Antiquity and considers it as a human language, which is compatible with the conception of the divine inspiration in Christianity, (cf. Encyclicals Dei Verbum or Verbum Domini).
So, simply put, ancient Sumerian and Babylonian texts from the Middle East were used and assimilated by the inspired authors of the Genesis, but to make something new and original, with a singular intellectual personality. In fact, ancient elements may be integrated into new original conceptions.
In the past, I had already paid attention to the cherub, which constitutes an example of borrowing from the Babylonian literature, culture.
The cherubim are often portrayed as babies, young children with harmonious traits. This is especially interesting as the cherubim are very high in the celestial hierarchy and they are portrayed in the texts as polymorphous and redoubtable creatures and not children at all. The celestial hierarchy was described by the theologian Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the fifth century. He classifies the angels from the ones that are the closest to God to the ones that are the most remote from him and the cherubim are the second ones after the seraphim.
The word “cherub” comes from the Akkadian “karibu”. The Akkadian language was spoken in all Mesopotamia from the third to the first millennium before Jesus Christ. The karibu designated a part animal part human genius in charge of the protection of the temples and of the palaces:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f1/57/90/f1579023bf81f6ba28c680062d9792b8.jpg
When the Hebrews started to write the Old Testament, they didn’t reject these Babylonian divinities but in the light of their faith in a unique God, these karibu could only be creatures and not gods. They became then the “cherubim”, a kind of angels serving the unique God, whom the function was to protect.
The first reference to them appears in the Genesis. In fact, when God dismisses Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, the cherubim are in charge of the protection of the access leading to the Tree of Life.
Genesis 3,24:
“After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[a] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”
Later, in the Exodus, the Lord orders Moses to shape two cherubim made of gold and to put them on the extremities of the mercy seat.
Exodus 25, 18-22:
“And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. 19 Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. 20 The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. 21 Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law that I will give you. 22 There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.”
Then there is a mention of these protectors in Numbers 7, 89:
“When Moses entered the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant law. In this way the Lord spoke to him.”
Later, in 1 Kings 6, 23-28, the King Salomon places two monumental cherubim in the middle of the temple he builds for God:
“For the inner sanctuary he made a pair of cherubim out of olive wood, each ten cubits high. 24 One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing five cubits—ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip. 25 The second cherub also measured ten cubits, for the two cherubim were identical in size and shape. 26 The height of each cherub was ten cubits. 27 He placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple, with their wings spread out. The wing of one cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. 28 He overlaid the cherubim with gold.”
Then, when Ezekiel has a vision, he distinguishes four blazing living beings, cherubim pulling God’s cart:
“I looked, and I saw the likeness of a throne of lapis lazuli above the vault that was over the heads of the cherubim. 2 The Lord said to the man clothed in linen, “Go in among the wheels beneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” And as I watched, he went in.
3 Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court. 4 Then the glory of the Lord rose from above the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the temple. The cloud filled the temple, and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the Lord. 5 The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far away as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.
6 When the Lord commanded the man in linen, “Take fire from among the wheels, from among the cherubim,” the man went in and stood beside a wheel. 7 Then one of the cherubim reached out his hand to the fire that was among them. He took up some of it and put it into the hands of the man in linen, who took it and went out. 8 (Under the wings of the cherubim could be seen what looked like human hands.)
9 I looked, and I saw beside the cherubim four wheels, one beside each of the cherubim; the wheels sparkled like topaz. 10 As for their appearance, the four of them looked alike; each was like a wheel intersecting a wheel. 11 As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the cherubim faced; the wheels did not turn about as the cherubim went. The cherubim went in whatever direction the head faced, without turning as they went. 12 Their entire bodies, including their backs, their hands and their wings, were completely full of eyes, as were their four wheels. 13 I heard the wheels being called “the whirling wheels.” 14 Each of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a human being, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
15 Then the cherubim rose upward. These were the living creatures I had seen by the Kebar River. 16 When the cherubim moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the cherubim spread their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels did not leave their side. 17 When the cherubim stood still, they also stood still; and when the cherubim rose, they rose with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in them.”
The cherubim appear then in the Apocalypse 4, 6-8, where they have to go over humans with a fine-tooth comb before they pass in the divine world:
“In the centre, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:
“‘Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,’
who was, and is, and is to come.””
These passages show that the cherubim are placed in the threshold between sacred and profane. They mark the limit. It is Ezekiel that describes the cherubim with most details. But they don’t look like babies at all.
In the medieval Greek art, the cherubim are simply represented with a human face and wings:
https://i.imgur.com/asu37Wv.png
It is actually in the Western art of the Quattrocento (XVth century), that the transformation is achieved and that these angels become chubby babies:
http://www.artcyclopedia.org/art/andrea-mantegna-putti.jpg
Detail of angel by Mantegna (1431-1506)
And this representation was affirmed in the baroque style.
In the past, I had already paid attention to the cherub, which constitutes an example of borrowing from the Babylonian literature, culture.
....
Thanks for the informations!
Do you mean the cherubim are the Sumerian gods?
Thanks for the informations!
Do you mean the cherubim are the Sumerian gods?
Yes, they were Mesopotamian (Sumerian, Akkadian and Babylonian) divinities of second rank.
Tannhauser
08-27-2020, 11:08 PM
Genesis have some histories similar to sumerian myths and these were wrote way before bible.( like creation of adam, also noah, cain and abel).
how to explain it as a christian?
In the past, I had already paid attention to the cherub, which constitutes an example of borrowing from the Babylonian literature, culture.
When the Hebrews started to write the Old Testament, they didn’t reject these Babylonian divinities but in the light of their faith in a unique God, these karibu could only be creatures and not gods. They became then the “cherubim”, a kind of angels serving the unique God, whom the function was to protect.
The first reference to them appears in the Genesis. In fact, when God dismisses Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, the cherubim are in charge of the protection of the access leading to the Tree of Life.
Hebrew´s and roman's religions were very influenced by babylonians, Chaldeans, Arameans, phonecians, persians, egyptians and other parts of Asia Minor.
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/1a/06/59/1a0659304130e48b99e5fe9c2ce5e05e.jpg
:coffee: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/paganshadowchrist_article_01.shtml :coffee:
:coffee:https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/influence-mystery-religions-christianity :coffee:
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.3 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.