Legends of Babylon and Egypt in Relation to Hebrew Tradition.pdf

plan of the temple which he drew was the plan of Eninnû; and the ass that lay upon the ground was the patesi
himself.[1]
[1] The symbolism of the ass, as a beast of burden, was applicable to the patesi in his task of carrying out the building
of the temple.
The essential feature of the vision is that the god himself appeared to the sleeper and delivered his message in words.
That is precisely the manner in which Kronos warned Xisuthros of the coming Deluge in the version of Berossus;
while in the Gilgamesh Epic the apparent contradiction between the direct warning and the dream-warning at once
disappears. It is true that Gudea states that he did not understand the meaning of the god's message, and so required an
interpretation; but he was equally at a loss as to the identity of the god who gave it, although Ningirsu was his own
city-god and was accompanied by his own familiar city-emblem. We may thus assume that the god's words, as words,
were equally intelligible to Gudea. But as they were uttered in a dream, it was necessary that the patesi, in view of his
country's peril, should have divine assurance that they implied no other meaning. And in his case such assurance was
the more essential, in view of the symbolism attaching to the other features of his vision. That this is sound reasoning
is proved by a second vision vouchsafed to Gudea by Ningirsu. For the patesi, though he began to prepare for the
building of the temple, was not content even with Ninâ's assurance. He offered a prayer to Ningirsu himself, saying
that he wished to build the temple, but had received no sign that this was the will of the god; and he prayed for a sign.
Then, as the patesi lay stretched upon the ground, the god again appeared to him and gave him detailed instructions,
adding that he would grant the sign for which he asked. The sign was that he should feel his side touched as by a
flame,[1] and thereby he should know that he was the man chosen by Ningirsu to carry out his commands. Here it is
the sign which confirms the apparent meaning of the god's words. And Gudea was at last content and built the
temple.[2]
[1] Cyl. A., col. xii, l. 10 f.; cf. Thureau-Dangin, op. cit., p. 150 f., Germ. ed., p. 102 f. The word translated "side" may
also be rendered as "hand"; but "side" is the more probable rendering of the two. The touching of Gudea's side (or
hand) presents an interesting resemblance to the touching of Jacob's thigh by the divine wrestler at Peniel in Gen. xxxii.
24 ff. (J or JE). Given a belief in the constant presence of the unseen and its frequent manifestation, such a story as
that of Peniel might well arise from an unexplained injury to the sciatic muscle, while more than one ailment of the
heart or liver might perhaps suggest the touch of a beckoning god. There is of course no connexion between the
Sumerian and Hebrew stories beyond their common background. It may be added that those critics who would reverse
the /rôles/ of Jacob and the wrestler miss the point of the Hebrew story.
[2] Even so, before starting on the work, he took the further precautions of ascertaining that the omens were favourable
and of purifying his city from all malign influence.
We may conclude, then, that in the new Sumerian Version of the Deluge we have traced a logical connexion between
the direct warning to Ziusudu in the Fourth Column of the text and the reference to a dream in the broken lines at the
close of the Third Column. As in the Gilgamesh Epic and in Berossus, here too the god's warning is conveyed in a
dream; and the accompanying reference to conjuring by the Name of Heaven and Earth probably represents the means
by which Ziusudu was enabled to verify its apparent meaning. The assurance which Gudea obtained through the priest
of Ninâ and the sign, the priest-king Ziusudu secured by his own act, in virtue of his piety and practice of divination.
And his employment of the particular class of incantation referred to, that which conjures by the Name of Heaven and
Earth, is singularly appropriate to the context. For by its use he was enabled to test the meaning of Enki's words,
which related to the intentions of Anu and Enlil, the gods respectively of Heaven and of Earth. The symbolical setting
of Gudea's vision also finds a parallel in the reed-house and wall of the Deluge story, though in the latter case we have
not the benefit of interpretation by a goddess. In the Sumerian Version the wall is merely part of the vision and does
not receive a direct address from the god. That appears as a later development in the Semitic Version, and it may
perhaps have suggested the excuse, put in that version into the mouth of Ea, that he had not directly revealed the
decision of the gods.[1]
[1] In that case the parallel suggested by Sir James Frazer between the reed-house and wall of the Gilgamesh Epic,
now regarded as a medium of communication, and the whispering reeds of the Midas story would still hold good.