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Babylonia and
Ancient Near Eastern Texts
You may want to look at some reviews of MAX LUCADO. His radical views seem to support the ANCIENT-MODERN form or religion or a Spectacle of Worship. I helps see how Ancient Babylon religious views have suddenly become very popular. Some views on SUN worship related to SHAMASH. And Baptizing Santa by Rubel Shelly
Christians have been seeking to turn every symbol (mark IDOL) to the glory of God. Thus a midwinter festival to the s-u-n was converted into a day of rejoicing over the S-o-n of God. If Jesus is described by biblical writers as the "Sun of Righteousness" and God's "true light coming into the world," what could be more natural?
To those with Britannica Online Membership . They have SCRAMBLED their links and I am slowly updating them.
See the Background to Tithing in Babylon
David's Temple as a request to rule and worship like THE NATIONS. The Hebrew word goyim, "nations", is a clerical error for Gutium or Guti, a neighbouring state which plays an important role throughout Babylonian history.
Comparing the Elements of the Jerusalem Temple to the Tower of Babel and other ancient temples
Babylonian Background to Jewish Sabbath
This page does not expand upon the fact that the primary "gods" were originally the erratic heavenly bodies including the Sun, Moon and the known planets. The world's literature is aware of a much less stable world and the elements which controlled their lives were seen as living powers. Lesser gods were deified men and women who made it to god status because of some great invention of control devices such as canals, dikes, weapons or musical instruments.
The Bible also personifies God's power by explaining His "Spirit" or Mind as hovering over the waters; God "walks upon the wings of the wind." And His ministers are "wind, fire, earthquakes, etc." Because God is invisible we see His work in the natural world. Job (27:1; 29:1) speaks of the creative events as "parables" and Jesus said that the mysteries of God were hidden in parables from the foundation of the world (Matthew 13). It is important to understand that mountains do not "praise" God and trees do not "clap their hands."
Mesopotamian religion
Beliefs and practices of the Sumerians and Akkadians, and their successors, the Babylonians and Assyrians, who inhabited ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) in the millennia before the Christian era. These religious beliefs and practices form a single stream of tradition.
Four periods of Sumerian can be distinguished: Archaic Sumerian, Old or Classical Sumerian, New Sumerian, and Post-Sumerian.
Archaic Sumerian covered a period from about 3100 BC, when the first Sumerian records make their appearance, down to about 2500 BC. The earliest Sumerian writing is almost exclusively represented by texts of business and administrative character. There are also school texts in the form of simple exercises in writing signs and words. The Archaic Sumerian language is still very poorly understood, partly because of the difficulties surrounding the reading and interpretation of early Sumerian writing and partly because of the meagreness of sources.
Akkadian spread across an area extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf during the time of Sargon (Akkadian Sharrum-kin) of the Akkad dynasty, who reigned from about 2334 to about 2279 BC. By about 2000 Akkadian had supplanted Sumerian as the spoken language of southern Mesopotamia, although Sumerian remained in use as the written language of sacred literature
Sumerian in origin, it was added to and subtly modified by the Akkadians (Semites who emigrated into Mesopotamia from the west at the end of the 4th millennium BC), whose own beliefs were in large measure assimilated to, and integrated with, those of their new environment.
The Hurrians enter the orbit of ancient Middle Eastern civilization toward the end of the 3rd millennium BC. They arrived in Mesopotamia from the north or the east, but it is not known how long they had lived in the peripheral regions. There is a brief inscription in Hurrian language from the end of the period of Akkad, while that of King Arishen (or Atalshen) of Urkish and Nawar is written in Akkadian.
Amorite: member of an ancient Semitic-speaking people who dominated the history of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine from about 2000 to about 1600 BC. In the oldest cuneiform sources (c. 2400-c. 2000 BC), the Amorites were equated with the West, though their true place of origin was most likely Arabia, not Syria. They were troublesome nomads and were believed to be one of the causes of the downfall of the 3rd dynasty of Ur (c. 2112-c. 2004 BC).
The Kassites in Babylonia: The Kassites had settled by 1800 BC in what is now western Iran in the region of Hamadan-Kermanshah. The first to feel their forward thrust was Samsuiluna, who had to repel groups of Kassite invaders. Increasing numbers of Kassites gradually reached Babylonia and other parts of Mesopotamia. There they founded principalities, of which little is known. No inscription or document in the Kassite language has been preserved. Some 300 Kassite words have been found in Babylonian documents. Nor is much known about the social structure of the Kassites or their culture. There seems to have been no hereditary kingdom. Their religion was polytheistic; the names of some 30 gods are known.
Chaldea: also spelled CHALDAEA, Assyrian KALDU, BABYLONIAN KASDU, Hebrew KASDDIM, land in southern Babylonia (modern southern Iraq) frequently mentioned in the Old Testament. Strictly speaking, the name should be applied to the land bordering the head of the Persian Gulf between the Arabian desert and the Euphrates delta. Words related to the Chaldeans shows that the word is synonynous with "Astrologers, Magi, Sorcerers, and musical magicians" because of their discovery of the god-calling power of ringing brass or vibrating strings.
Britannica History of Mesopotamia required from Britannica)
