An Early Akkadian Historical Argument

I have often felt that the initiation rite that Gilgamesh does not pass in Tablet XI of the standard Akkadian version (right after the flood narrative of Utanapishtim) of the Epic is one of the earliest historical arguments that we have (ca 1200BC, from the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh). It is unclear to me whether the older Babylonian versions contained this section.

The context of the story is the challenge that the "Akkadian Noah" Utanapishtim gives to Gilgamesh to show that he is worthy of eternal life; he must not fall asleep for a week. Utanapishtim and his unnamed wife had earlier received, as an exception, immortality from Enlil, because they had overheard the secrets of the Gods; cf. L190ff.

(L198) [Utanapishtim said:] "Now then, who will convene the gods on your behalf,
that you may find the life that you are seeking!
Wait! You must not lie down for six days and seven nights."
soon as he [Gilgamesh] sat down (with his head) between his legs
sleep, like a fog, blew upon him. 

Gilgamesh falls asleep immediately, and Utanapishtim complains to his wife that Gilgamesh failed, but she asks for mercy, that he may wake up and return home. 

(L202) Utanapishtim said to his wife:
"Look there! The man, the youth who wanted (eternal) life!
Sleep, like a fog, blew over him."
His wife said to Utanapishtim the Faraway:
"Touch him, let the man awaken.
Let him return safely by the way he came.
Let him return to his land by the gate through which he left." 

Utanapishtim is concerned that Gilgamesh will deny falling asleep altogether, so he sets up a temporal trap, asking his wife to mark off the days on the wall and place fresh loaves of bread next to him.

(L208) Utanapishtim said to his wife:
"Mankind is deceptive, and will deceive you.
Come, bake loaves for him and keep setting them by his head
and draw on the wall each day that he lay down."
She baked his loaves and placed them by his head
and marked on the wall the day that he lay down.
The first loaf was dessicated,
the second stale, the third moist(?), the fourth turned white,
its ..., the fifth sprouted gray (mold), the sixth is still fresh. [...]"

One suspects that the earlier version had just marks on the wall, and the later version then fixed the fact that the marks show no temporal progression per se, but could be made together. This is independently interesting, if my suspicions are correct.

(L218) The seventh--suddenly he touched him and the man awoke.
Gilgamesh said to Utanapishtim:
"The very moment sleep was pouring over me
you touched me and alerted me!"

As Utanapishtim predicted, Gilgamesh tries to deny it by claiming that he ad been sleeping for just a moment (i.e. was not really asleep yet). But the evidence makes that story unsupportable.

(L222) Utanapishtim spoke to Gilgamesh, saying:
"Look over here, Gilgamesh, count your loaves!
You should be aware of what is marked on the wall!
Your first loaf is dessicated,
the second stale, the third moist, your fourth turned white,
its ...
the fifth sprouted gray (mold), the sixth is still fresh.
The seventh--at that instant you awoke!"
Gilgamesh said to Utanapishtim the Faraway:
"O woe! What shall I do, Utanapishtim, where shall I go!
...."

As far as the translation is concerned, the problem is the rotting away of the bread. E.A. Speiser had "soggy" instead of moist.


Colophon: Tablet XI translated by Maureen Gallery Kovacs, electronic version by Wolf Carnahan, line numbers according to ANECT, 3rd edition with Supplement, (pp.95-96).

Notes on Reading the Acts of Peter

Chapter XII

• 
  
• The dog came to Peter, seated with the crowd, so that they could see his face.
• And the dog reported what he had discussed with Simon.
• And this the dog said to the messenger and apostle of the true [read: veri] God. 
• Petrus, a big battle you will have against Simon, and with those that serve him.
• For many will you bring to faith that have been misled by him.
• That's why you will receive the reward from God for your doing.
• After saying this, the dog fell down before the feet of Petrus and gave up his ghost.

The talking dog is a fairy tale element, but in Antiquity the horse and the donkey are more likely to talk (The Golden Ass, Balaam). Kynokephales (dog heads) and Akephales (headless) can talk (since 500 bc about in the geography), to which St Christopherus comes, as does Barnabas in his Acts. Ps 150:6 expect all that spirare to praise the Lord. At the brim of the oikomene, is the wall to keep out the monstra that Alexander built in the Alexander novels. Though there were walls in the Caucasus, early Byzantium pays the Persians to keep up the wall (probably a pass they protected). Eventually the Mongols (the Tartars from the Tartarus) came. Sins brought on the loss in the Second Crusades as well (front part of the Carmina Burana).

Theologically, this means that even the animals do not believe Simon.

• As the crowd saw how the dog talked, some sat down at Peter's feet, and others called, "Give us another sign, so that we can believe that you are the servant of the Living God."
• "For Simon showed many signs in our presence [praesentia nostra], that's why we followed him."

Chapter XIII

• Peter however turned around, saw a sarda [mackerel? tunny?] hung up for drying on the window, took it and said to the crowd:
• If you see this one swimming in water like a living fish, would you then believe in the one that I proclaim?
• They said with one voice, We will truly believe you.
• Then he said to the fish [pisci piscina, haplographic elimination] next to a swimming pool:
• In the name of Jesus Christ [eliminate tuo,  read Christi], in whom they cannot believe, live and swim (literally: as a fish)!

The resurrection miracle does something new, that's why the dog is done about. The phrase "nata tamquam" with its a-sounds is akin to a magic spell.

• And he placed the sarda into the pool, and the fish [subject change] lived and swam about.
• The crowd saw how the fish swam and the fish [subject change] did not do this just in this moment, and did it for a while,  so that the crowd could see, how a [dried] fish was swimming around, until someone threw bread to the fish; and he ate [edebat] all of it.

Of course, an ocean fish could not survive in sweetwater.

• But many followed who saw this and began to believe, and they came together day and night in the house of the presbyter Narcissus [name known from Romans, and from the martyrium of Clemens at the Black Sea; see laos Mara Sordi, Those Encounters in the Senator's House]

In the Middle Ages, Ovid was thought to have been converted, probably during the exile in Tomi, was recycled for prayers. 

• Peter however taught them about the writings of the prophets [eliminate de], and what our Lord Jesus Christ did, in words and in deeds. 

Chapter XIV

• Marcellus became day by day stronger founded in his belief [fundabatur not fundebatur] through the miracles which happened through the grace of Jesus Christ.
• Marcellus jumped in his house over Simon who sat in his triclinium (eating hall that houses three rows of three people, or nine).

See also the banquet hall in Hadrian's villa, with the swimming food.

• He cussed and said to him, "You biggest enemy and most perverted of all humans, corruptor of my soul and my house, who wanted to chase me away from Christ, my Lord and Savior."
• And he became physical and ordered him out of the house.
• The slaves however received power over him [i.e. Simon, RCK] and dissed him, slapped him into the face, others took sticks and stones, others poured buckets of filth over his head. [The slaves always sided with their lord; thus interrogation under torture, because the slaves would be pro-master.]
• For they had, because of him [i.e. Simon], fled their master [read effugerant] and had been tied for a long time (when they were brought back). 

This is classical caricature of the slaves, both the fleeing from and the insulting of the master. 

• And the other slaves, about whom he talked badly to their master, tongue-lashed and said to him, "And now we will give you the deserved reward, through God, who took pity on us and our master."
• Simon, who had been badly treated and thrown out of the house, ran to the house to which Peter had returned [revertebatur] (i.e. the House of Narcissus, cf. VI).
• Outside the house of the Presbyter Narcissus, Simon stood and shouted,
• "Here I am, Peter, come out, and I will prove that you believed [only] in a Jewish human and the son of a carpenter (a manual laborer)."

Guido M. Berndt (Editor), Roland Steinacher (Editor), Arianism: Roman Heresy and Barbarian Creed, September 28, 2014. (Google Preview) [Amazon]

Chapter XV

• Peter was told that Simon had yelled this.
• Peter sent a woman with an infant to him, and said to her, "Quickly go outside and you will see someone who is looking for me."

to be continued

Mormon 9:33 and Reformed Egyptian

In Mormon 9:33 it says

v34: But the Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also that none other people knoweth our language; and because that none other people knoweth our language, therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof.

And as Joseph Smith Jr expanded the point in his note to the Times & Season (Vol IV, Nr.13, May 15, 1843, p.194) on the meaning of the word Mormon.

Here then the subject is put to silence, for "none other people knoweth our language", therefore the Lord and not man had to interpret, after the people were all dead.

However, the certainty of that translation was marred by an article in the same publication (p.190), an exposition on the influence of the principles of truth, where the writers admitted that the orthographic and grammatical correctness of the revelation was dependent on the vessel of transmission.

But a ridiculous notion is frequently expressed, that the dictates of the spirit, through whatsoever channel they may flow, must necessarily be correctly constructed and perfectly grammatical.

Acts 4:13 allows them to point out that lack of rhetorical training of Peter and John was obvious and commented upon, in spite of the power of their argument.
Here the argument takes the anti-learning turn that was prevalent in the Western Reserve and other frontier areas as a rejection of the types of learning the Eastern and European universities could provide, as (White 1947) points out.

But the truth is, ..., every instrument which the Lord employs will be at any rate gifted with simplicity and sincerity, and whatever the Lord shall be pleased to give unto his people, by them shall be given naturally and without hypocrisy. (p.190)

And almost in order to level the playing field for the wise and the less so, they note that

... the learned and the unlearned are strangely overcome (p.191)

by the principle of truth, and the "superior minds" still become "subject to the principles of truth", even if per se the gospel has nothing that "attracts the self-opinionated and the proud".

Social Stratification and the Book of Mormon

As we had previously noted, there is terminology from the KJV that discussed trade and trafficking. Especially the Prophet Ezekiel seemed pretty down on traders, Tyre foremost among them (for a convenient list of Tyre's trading partners in Ezekiel, see here). The article about trade networks mentioned before saw evidence in the BoM for describing the stratification of society that puts a trading elite on the top and distinguishes the society into various forms of elites, into non-military ranks and classes.

3 Nephi 6:12: And the people began to be distinguished by ranks, according to their riches and their chances for learning; yea, some were ignorant because of their poverty, and others did receive great learning because of their riches.

4 Nephi 1:26: And they began to be divided into classes; and they began to build up churches unto themselves to get gain, and began to deny the true church of Christ.

Alma 32:2: And it came to pass that after much labor among them, they began to have success among the poor class of people; for behold, they were cast out of the synagogues because of the coarseness of their apparel.

While this is clearly documented for Meso-America, which is where Allen J. Christenson looks for the evidence, this is not at all what is happening in the descriptions of the Old Testament or the KJV. As a result, the terms "rank" and "class" that the BoM uses to discuss these events do not occur in the KJV in this form (non-military) in the case of "rank" and not at all with respect to the term "class". The OT assumes that trade is in the hand of the elites, be they patriarchs or kings such as Salomon, or the merchant princes of Tyre. For the BoM that is a problem and a source of social criticism. 

An interesting aside in this context is the use of the word "lawyer". In the KJV, "lawyers" is the translation of the Greek term "οἱ νομικοὶ" (e.g. Luke 7:30, 11:45f, etc; Mathews 22:35; Titus 3:13); modern translations (including the LDS Bible dictionary) translate the word as "scribes". 

In the BoM, the lawyers are men whose tasks conform to the modern notion of lawyer, i.e. legal advisors and prosecutors, attached to the judicial proceedings of a [debtors] court, where they (as well as the judges) are recompensed in the binary system of gold, silver and barley equivalences, for their time and effort (Alma 10:29-Alma 11:20). The BoM accuses the lawyers of being in it not for the justice, but for the recompense. 

Alma 11:20: Now, it was for the sole purpose to get gain, because they [i.e. the lawyers] received their wages according to their employ, therefore, they did stir up the people to riotings, and all manner of disturbances and wickedness, that they might have more employ, that they might get money according to the suits which were brought before them; therefore they did stir up the people against Alma and Amulek.

I find this as peculiarly modern a notion as I find the discussion about formation of elites.