File:The religion of Babylonia and Assyria especially in its relations to Israel (1908) (14782196802).jpg

Identifier: religionofbabyl00roge (find matches)
Title: The religion of Babylonia and Assyria especially in its relations to Israel
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Rogers, Robert William, 1864-
Subjects: Judaism
Publisher: New York, Eaton
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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on the otherhand, was already endowed with knowledge andwisdom, and failed of immortality not becausehe was disobedient, like Adam, but because hewas obedient to Ea, his creator. The legend isthe Babylonian attempt to explain death;Adapa did not secure immortality, and nomortal has ever again had the opportunity toattain it. Adam was banished from the gardenof Eden lest he should put forth his hand, andtake of the tree of life, and eat, and live for-ever,1 while in the Babylonian myth Anureally desired to confer immortality upon Adapabecause he thought it not fitting that he shouldhave the wisdom of the gods and yet fail oftheir immortality. As Sayce has well said,Babylonian polytheism allowed the existenceof divided counsels among the gods; the mono-theism of Israel made this impossible. Therewas no second Jahweh to act in contradictionto the first; Jahweh was at once the creator ofman and the God of heaven, and there wasnone to dispute his will. There is no room for > Gen. 3. 22.
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FIGURE XV. THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR TO HADES Assyrian Clay Tablet in the British Museum Size of the original, 91 by 3i inches Obverse THE MYTHS AND EPICS 191 Arm in the book of Genesis; and as Ea, thecreator of Adapa, was unwilling that the manhe had created should become an immortal god,so Jahweh, the creator of Adam, similarlydenied to him the food of immortal life.1 If the myth of Adapa is interesting in thestory itself, and also in its revelation of theBabylonian ideas of the immortal life, thestory of Ishtars descent into the abode of thedead is still more illuminating as revealing thepopular ideas as well as the theological concep-tions of the abode of the dead. The story is soimportant in so many ways that we shall dowell to have it before us in translation insteadof in mere paraphrase2: To the land of No-return, the earth Ishtar, the daughter of Sin, directed her thought,3The daughter of Sin directed her thought,To the house of darkness, Irkallas dwelling place,5 To the house fro

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