FOOD FOR THOUGHT: "Ignorance is a psychological state."
	YOU ARE IN DARKNESS.
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The Flood of the Old Testament, is mathematically wrong, geographically uncertain, and the human dimension is not right. So what is this? This myth is based on a tablet read and published in 1914. But, in the beginning, it was thought that the story of the Flood was written only in the Old Testament. When Ashurbanipal's (King of Assyria) library was unearthed during the excavations at Nineveh, and the story of the Flood was read on a clay tablet in 1872 there was widespread disbelief and confusion and the faith in the Old Testament story started evaporating. The Old Testament story about the Flood was taken from the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is Babylonian, and based on the Sumerian myth. It was read on the fragment of a Sumerian clay tablet which was published by American scholar Arno Poebel in 1914. This fragment contained episodes of what was the myth of the Flood. The outline is as follows: (At the specific point where the fragment continues the story) ..A God, appearing to be intent upon saving the mankind from the destruction which the Gods have decided to bring upon them, warns and instructs Ziusudra (Ziusuddu, Ziusuduru, Ziu Sudra), who is a person loyal to the Gods, likes daydreaming, and listening to his inner self and the world beyond. He is the king of Shuruppak. The reason behind this decision to destroy the mankind is not given. The God who is warning Ziusudra is Enki. He instructs Ziusudra to stand by a wall through which he will reveal the measures to be taken to escape this coming flood. "There was exceedingly powerful windstorms, at the same time a flood swept over the cult-centers; flood swept over the land for seven days and seven nights; huge boat (the 'Ark') had been tossed about by the windstorms on wild waters.....(then apparently clouds left the sky and sun shone)...Ziusudra opened a window of the huge boat, Utu (Sun God) brought his rays into the giant boat; Ziusudra, the king prostrated himself before Utu; killed an ox, slaughtered a sheep (as sacrifices of course).....(after a break in the tablet)....Ziusudra, the king prostrated himself before Anu, Enlil. These two supreme overseers cherished Ziusudra; gave him a God-like life (made him immortal); and placed Ziusudra, the king, preserver of the name of vegetation, of the seed of mankind, in the land of crossing, the land of Dilmun, the place where the sun rises.' This is the farthest we could go by a fragment of the Sumerian clay tablet. But there are much more in the Babylonian myths and especially the Gilgamesh Epic. If you can put up with the disappoinment in the Old Testament, read this well-known epic. The Flood story is at the end of the Gilgamesh epic. It was told to Gilgamesh by Uthnapishtim (Noah of that day!), who had survived the Flood and was made immortal by the Gods. According to the version in the Gilgamesh Epic, this is Uthnapishtim's account: '..Mankind became so populous that Gods were unable to sleep due to the noise made by the mankind.. Four great Gods decided to destroy these people by a flood. But the God of Wisdom is sad with the prospect of total destruction of the mankind. So he stands by the wall of the house of Uthnapishtim in the city of Shuruppak and tells him about the decision of the Gods to cause a flood, that he should build a ship...As soon as the ship is finished and its door is closed the flood begins and the waters become so turbulent and wild that even Gods were terrified..Deluge lasts six days and six nights..On the seventh day the ship grounds on Mount Nisir..Uthnapishtim waits for another seven days then releases a dove..And when the last released bird - raven - failed to return (meaning the bird has found dry land to land) they leave the ship..Uthnapishtim kills animals as offerings and serves drinks to Gods on the summit of the mountain. They start cooking the meat in seven cauldrons. Gods gather to the smell of meat (Hebrew God likes meat very much. So now you know the origin of his taste). When Enlil, who caused the flood, comes and sees the ship and the humans he becomes angry. The God of Wisdom tries to appease him. Uthnapishtim and his wife are given immortality and placed in the garden of Gods at the mouth of the river.' This story is written in Akkadian, which is a Semitic language. But the names mentioned in the story belonged to another language. So this story must have been invented by the Sumerians who were speaking Akkadian. A half-broken clay tablet in the Philadelphia University proved this fact. The flood story on this tablet was in Sumerian and written as a poem. Here Gods get angry with the humans and decide to cause a flood. This decision is told to a man called Ziusudra from behind a wall. Deluge starts, lasts for seven days and seven nights..When it is over Ziusudra makes offerings to the Gods.. In return Gods give this 'unassuming, respectful man who never misses his daily duties to Gods' a God-like life (immortality) and sent this man who saved the names of the plants and preserved the seed of humanity, to the place where the sun rises, to the land of Dilmun.

The Old Testament has a slightly different version (which is tailored to the needs of those who wrote the story of course). God decides to destroy mankind because they are bad and corrupt. Noah is a man who knows the God and goes with Him. God tells him to build a ship..tells him how to build it..and who to take on board..Noah does everything he is told..Deluge lasts 40 days..Everything on earth is destroyed..Waters recede in 150 days..The ship grounds on Mount Ararat on the 17th day of the seventh month..Noah waits for another 40 days..First releases a raven, it comes back...Then releases a dove...and when the third dove he releases does not come back, they disembark...Noah makes offerings..When Rabb smells the meat offered by Noah, He decides to not to cause anymore floods...Speaks to Noah and promises him that he would never cause a deluge on earth again..Rewards him with long life.

The Gilgamesh Epic is said to be going as far back as 3000 BC. A translation of the Epic in Akkadian was found in Boğazköy, in Turkey. The fact that a piece of a broken tablet found in Megiddo in Palestine has this Epic written on it shows that it was known in Palestine in ancient times. It exists also in Hittite, Horite, and Ugaritic texts. The Gilgamesh Epic entered the Old Testament and passed to Qoran from there. Sin-leqe-Unnini is the writer of the Epic long after the period it is said to have taken place. It was written three times in three separate periods. The original is the one written in 2000 BC. The text written in 1700 BC. in Old Babylonian has a lyrical air to it. The third text written in New Babylonian has a philosophical character. When Babylonians wrote it for the last time they wrote it on 12 clay tablets. The Flood is written on tablet 11, which is thought to have been added to the Gilgamesh Epic by Sin-leqe-Unnini.

This is the basic Law said to have been revealed divinely(!) to Moses on Mount Sinai. Ten Commandments are a list of religious observations according to what is written in the Old Testament. Ten Commandments ('aseret hadevarim' in Hebrew, and 'deka logoi' - decalogue - 'ten words' in Greek) were supposedly engraved on two stone tablets. Ten Commandments are said to be the open part of the divine (!) orders. Moses on Mount Sinai had been instructed to hide many of the words he received. He was to issue publicly only a portion of the books that were dictated to him. The others were to be delivered 'in secret' to the wise. Apocrypha, 'secret knowledge', magic and sorcery arose from this tradition.

The term 'Ten Commandments' is applied to two different collections, those in Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21 are sometimes called the 'ethical decalogue,' (duties toward men) and that of Exodus 34:14-26 called the 'ritual decalogue' (duties toward God). The ritual decalogue prescribes ritual and cultic observances only and probably should be assigned to the time of Solomon (Shlomo), though the practices themselves are much older. Placed after Amos and Hosea (after 750 BC.) It is also possible to argue for a very early date even pre-Mosaic times. Exodus and Deuteronomy connect the decalogue with the Moses and the Sinai covenant. Here the most observant would get a hint of the creation of a supposedly effective and persuasive document which would enter the stage as the Old Testament.

Do we have anything resembling The Ten Commandments in pre-Mosaic times? Yes! We have the international covenants; Hittite, Canaanite and even Egyptian. These were usually suzerainty treaties. Ten Commandments were basically a contract - 'covenant', in which Israel was bound to obey the rules defined in the Commandments and YHWH became its suzerain or protector. Covenants of this type were deposited in a sanctuary, just as the tables of stone were placed in the Ark of the Covenant (a portable sanctuary) and were supposed to be read publicly at stated periodic intervals. Original Commandments in Hebrew are admitted to have been two to four words, as the name 'decalogue' (ten words) suggests, but expanded considerably later on. Expanded by whom? The mankind of course.

10. You shall not covet your neighbour's house, you shall not covet your neighbour's wife.... manservant.... maidservant.... his ox.... his ass...anything that is your neighbour's.

As you can see the Ten Commandments have become Twenty Commandments as the Old Testament texts were edited, and re-written, in line with the conditions of the times and the aspirations of the writers of the Old Testament. This expansion and the differences between the Exodus and Deuteronomy versions show that there was a process of reinterpretation as it was transmitted through the generations during the Old Testament period. The particularly sacred nature of the Ten Commandments to post-Biblical Judaism is indicated by the Nash Papyrus from Egypt. It was written about a century before the time of Christ, which consists of a single leaf containing the Ten Commandments. Its form is not identical with either the Exodus or the Deuteronomy versions. The Nash Papyrus contains also the Shema(::::::).

In actual fact the Decalogue is nothing but the codified summary of the laws which were in use in the Near East and India long before Moses. The core of these laws exist also in the code of Hammurabi the Amorite king of Babylon who lived 500 years before Moses. Hammurabi's reign began about 1800 BC. Code of Hammurabi was in cuneiform and written in Babylonian, comprising of about 300 laws. It is the most important work of law that we have on the Babylonian civilization. But it was not the first code of its kind. Some provisions of it could be traced back to the earlier legislation enacted by Uru-ka-gina of Lagash (c. 2370 BC.), Lipit-Ishtar of Isin (c. 1870 BC.) and the laws of the Eshnunna. The first known 'code of laws' (a fragment only) is issued by Ur-Nammu, a king of the 3rd. dynasty of Ur (c. 2130 or 2113-2096 BC.) The clay tablets tell us that about 2000 BC. fines had replaced the corporal punishments. But 'eye for an eye' 'tooth for a tooth' punishments were still in force in the Jewish society ages later.

As pointed out above there were other commandments in force in the region before Mosaic era. Here are some examples, judge or yourself! First, some laws from Ancient Egypt, where we find the injunction in the 'teachings of Amenemope':

Here is another parallel of the Ten Commandments, this time from Assyria: An Assyrian priest who is trying to extract the evil spirit in a sick person had to ask the following:

According to the findings of the latest studies a 'crowd of Gods' certainly existed in Israel at one time. We can see this in the religion of the people during the early period. The sublime nature of royal Gods had existed as a concept in the religions of the peoples living in the regions around the Holy Land. Rules of responsibility, and morality; law, order and ethics already existed in the region. The accepted norms of human behaviour, which were in harmony with Israel's divine code of laws in both letter and spirit were also current elsewhere. So if these Commandments have had earlier parallels, in the cultural and moral history of the ancient East, who could claim that the Old Testament's code of laws was unique? All of these are the product of the human mind.

Sumerian laws were a basis to the Laws of Hammurabi. Laws of Hammurabi had its effects on the Mosaic and Judaic Laws. Mosaic and Judaic Laws in their turn had their effect on the Islamic Law. Hammurabi's receiving the Law from the Sun God in 1750 BC. became a model for Moses' receiving the Law from YHWH. Words from the Sumerian and Babylonian legal traditions appear in the Talmud. The word an orthodox Jew uses for divorse is a Sumerian word. When Torah is read in a synagog the listeners follow the lines by the frills of their shawls. This tradition reflects the original Sumerian tradition of pressing on the clay tablet with the edge of the clothing to show the approval of a legal document.

The land of Canaan is the birthplace of two things which affected the whole world: The Bible (Byblos-Biblion-Biblios) and the letters of our alphabet. In the 19th century BC. Greeks took over from Canaan the letters of our alphabet. The part of the country which was to become the home of Israel ('Promised Land') was named by the Romans after Israel's worst enemies: Palestine comes from Pelishtim as the Phillistines are called in the Old Testament. They lived in the southern most part of the coast of Canaan (Dan to Beersheba).

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