Chris: Thanks for the kind words.
BTW, anybody can become an expert in world religions and the history of religion. All it takes is intense study of various religions and their histories for maybe 40 or 50 years. Anyone can do it... :-/ Billy ________________________________ From: radicalcentrism@googlegroups.com <radicalcentrism@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Chris Hahn <c...@2chahn.com> Sent: Thursday, April 5, 2018 10:15 AM To: RadicalCentrism@googlegroups.com Subject: RE: [RC] Sacred Story Part # 3 -conclusion An amazing work Billy. The analogies are very interesting. Your knowledge of religions is astounding to me. Chris From: radicalcentrism@googlegroups.com <radicalcentrism@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Billy Rojas Sent: Thursday, April 5, 2018 2:27 AM To: Centroids Discussions <radicalcentrism@googlegroups.com> Cc: Billy Rojas <1billyro...@buglephilosophy.com> Subject: [RC] Sacred Story Part # 3 -conclusion The core of the "passion narrative" in the Inanna story concerns her actions following Dumuzi's death. What should be understood was that, if not at the beginning in 2650 BC, no later than ca. 2350 BC, Inanna was regarded as an incarnate Goddess. This was not merely something along the lines of Gilgamesh. In his case he was said to have been one third man and two-thirds divine being in the form of a human being. About which my skepticism could not be greater even if, anon, Gilgamesh, also an historic person, clearly was a "hero." Take this in the sense of leading characters in the Odyssey, a book that was at least partly modeled on the saga of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the world's first "novel." The Mesopotamians did not understand it that way, for them it had the status, or close to the status, of scripture. In any case, the Sumerians and those who followed them, held the belief that the "stars" -some of which were planets- embodied deities. Above all celestial bodies was an unseen deity and his unseen female deity wife, but after that among all deities, at the highest rank at some periods of history anyway, was Inanna, viz, at a later time known as Ishtar. Her celestial brother was Shamash, Utu in Sumerian language, God of the Sun, and deity of Justice. Inanna first existed in the heavens as "Venus" and at some point in, say, about 2675 BC, she manifested on Earth as a baby girl, then grown up into a young woman. This, whatever anyone today may think, was what the Mesopotamians believed. The point here is to establish what the Sumerians and other peoples believed, not to pass judgement on truth claims. The "office" of High Priestess was exalted. In some respects you can think of her as a female pope, that was approximately her status, with the qualification that in some respects she was more important to the Sumerians than the pope is for Catholics, at least to speak of the "modern" papacy starting in the 19th century. In the pre-modern era the popes had powers that were closer to that of the High Priestess as known in the Sumerian era. This power not only derived from her divine attributes but from the fact that the temples of that long past era were de facto banks -that was where the bulk of the wealth of the state was sequestered, where economic records were kept, where specie (gold, silver, gemstones) was kept, or large quantities were kept, and the High Priestess oversaw the temple institution as well as acting as landlady over large tracts of land; and many lower rank priestesses were land owners in their own right. Which is to say that it was no small thing when Inanna mourned for Dumuzi and not only mourned, sought to free him from the bonds of death. For Inanna resolved to visit the Netherworld (really not any different than the Hebrew concept for Sheol) to secure Dumuzi's release from its grasp by sacrificing her own life if that was what it might take. This is the crux of the passion narrative. The exact details of this are unclear but the story has it that Inanna visited the entrance to the Netherworld, presumably a physical place, perhaps in the mountains somewhere. Or possibly in or near the city of Cutha, whose chief deity was none other than Chemosh, in later tradition anyway, the husband of the Queen of the Underworld, Ereshkigal. Which may sound a little complicated but, when you think about it all, this story isn't worse in complexity than any of the Gospel narratives. BTW, Inanna had three sisters. You have been introduced to Geshtinanna, and Ereshkigal was another; the third was Saltu, later known as Discordia, as the name suggests, the deity of discord -unpredictability, biting humor, irrationality in human affairs, and so forth. It is Ereshkigal who concerns us now. And in the original Sumerian story, Ereshkigal was supreme in the abode of the dead. She made all the rules and decreed the fates of all the deceased. Ereshkigal's "residence" was in the lowest strata of the Netherworld, its seventh subterranean level. We learn that the body of Dumuzi was being kept in that 7th level. Inanna had to get to that level in order to persuade Ereshkigal to release Dumuzi. To make that possible, Inanna had to persuade each of seven gate-keepers to allow her to enter each of their domains. At each gate the admission was her willingness to remove one "veil." viz., article of clothing. As you might surmise this theme eventually was secularized as a form of dance known historically as the "dance of the seven veils." Which, of course, surfaces in the New Testament, in that case motivated by the worst kind of intent, causing death to the righteous. In the Sumerian original the motivation was the resurrection from death of someone who was righteous. To summarize, in the end, Inanna was as naked as she had been as a newborn infant when she was incarnated on Earth. She also had to pay a price and forfeit her own life to give new life to Dumuzi. Only then could Inanna herself be resurrected from the grave. There is a twist to the Mesopotamian story which is strange to modern day people. The Gods could not allow Inanna to remain in the Netherworld forever. Inanna also was Goddess of fertility. Absent from the world there would be no new life, no births of animals or people, no growth of crops or fruit trees, nothing. Death would reign. OTOH Dumuzi could not be given a free pass to new life; if he was to escape there must be a substitute to take his place. This is where Geshtinanna becomes crucial to the story. She agrees to take Dumuzi's place half of each year. Dumuzi must still serve his sentence the other half of each year. But Inanna was successful in setting all of this in action and responsible for Dumuzi's initial resurrection. Which is a long way to explain the historical background to the concept of substitutionary atonement. In its origins this belief was based on what we might call family relations and shared sense of responsibility on the part of family members. The similarities to the Gospel passion story should be obvious but, of course, there are differences. However, it would be worthwhile to look at the similarities. If this does not make you think, nothing will. * The episode involving Inanna's death and the resurrection of Dumuzi takes 3 days. * Christ, in the NT-based tradition of the "harrowing of hell," visits hell to redeem the departed, or, anyway, some of the departed. * Inanna isn't crucified but her lifeless body is hung on a meat hook for the denizens of the Underworld to look upon. * In the last analysis the "tomb" cannot hold Inanna, she is resurrected and returns to life. * While the original version of this story does not include the following incident, it became orthodox later, in the Assyrian period. At one point -known as Ishtar at that time- Inanna revisits the first gate and shouts that she will break down the door and release all the dead unless her wishes are acted upon. This parallels the "harrowing of hell" belief that Christ can release all the dead from their graves. * In both stories the divine person, at death, must surrender all of their garments, as did Jesus, at his crucifixion. * In both stories the presence of soldiers is important. This is not immediately obvious in the Inanna story because the soldiers in question were enemies of Dumuzi, who were responsible for his death previously. * Finally, mention should be made of a Babylonian custom at the time of the installation of their king. Note that the king, by that period of history, this is later then the Sumerian era but before the Assyrian epoch, was regarded as an embodiment of Tammuz. Prior to the king's installation he is struck violently, this physical punishment a sure sign of the man's fitness for his throne. As any Christian can tell you, Jesus was scourged prior to his crucifixion. Maybe some of these parallels stretch the point, and, for certain, there are good reasons for thinking that the Gospel narratives about Jesus' crucifixion are based on historical facts, but there are parallels nonetheless. And, like the story of the harrowing of hell, in some cases we need to take the world of a writer with no supporting evidence available. It may seem somewhat strange that a woman plays a role analogous to that of Jesus, but the facts are what they are. That is, I have recounted a story once believed in by millions, indeed, a story that was the dominant spiritual narrative for maybe 1500 years in the ancient world. By the time of Christ that narrative and the religion that went with it was in decline; regardless, it survived in some parts of the Mid East and did not cease to exist until the first century after the Muslim conquests. Incidentally, there is a secular explanation for the decline. The religion was still very much alive at the time of the first Persian Empire. In fact, while there had been some falling off in the Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) era, there was a major revival in the 300 BC - 200 BC era. The great temple complex (kind of an Ishtar Vatican) at Uruk flourished as never before, at least as never before after the fall of the Assyrians. This was due to the success that "Ishtarism" (to call it that) had with the Greeks of the empire. Greeks became a major source of patronage for the ancient Ishtar faith. But there would be a price to pay when the Parthians arose and conquered more and more Seleucid areas, sometimes replacing Mesopotamian religion with one or another form of Zoroastrianism. As well, the Seleucids became increasingly maginalized as pressures from the West also undercut their realm, both from Egypt and eventually from Rome. And, needless to say. there was a Jewish revolt that removed Judea from Seleucid rule. Even this was hardly "the end," and there was a new lease on life in the Roman era when the center of Ishtar veneration shifted to Syria, where she was known as Atargatis or simply as "the Syrian Goddess" (with a mystery religion of her own), but Christianity supplanted it more and more......... In any case, for whatever reasons the Assyrians themselves were increasingly drawn to Christianity, quite possibly partly because of the similarities, and were the first major population in the East to convert, almost en mass, to the new faith. Today's Assyrians, however, often name their daughters Ishtar and their sons after one or another Mesopotamian hero of history, like the Emperor Sargon, who was more-or-less the St. Paul of the Ishtar religion in his era. There is a survival of Inanna traditions, highly attenuated, in two places in greater India among folk cultures, where her name is still current, Baluchistan and remote parts of the Punjab. There, Inanna has the status of something like a minor goddess, somewhat like a local spirit. In the West, this story was adopted wholesale in Egypt to serve as the foundation for the story of Isis and Osiris. As noted, much about the Inanna (Ishtar) story was incorporated in the lore of the Virgin Mary. ----- What is also highly interesting is what happened in Assyria in the ca 1000 BC era and afterward for several centuries. What can be called "mature" Ishtar theology arose in that period, which is mostly what had come down to us until the discovery of numerous cuneiform texts starting in the last decades of the 19th century. BTW, the passion narrative has served as inspiration for one notable Classical music composition, the story translated in his time and available to Vincent D'Indy, best know for his Symphony on a French Mountain Aire. But you can purchase a recording if you want, it is called, simply, "Istar." My recording features Pierre Monteaux as conductor, taken from a concert by the San Francisco Symphony in 1945. Monteaux later served as conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. There is a photo of Monteaux on the "cover" of the CD; he sort of looks like John Bolton. What happened in Assyria was that Ishtar was elevated from, we might say, important daughter to Supreme Goddess. Ideas that were thought to be implicit in early form were made the most of by the Assyrians. And Tammuz, clearly with a secondary role in the story at its beginning, now became a sort of 'son of God,' reigning in Heaven along with God on High, whom the Assyrians called Asshur. The city of Nineveh, always important in some sense, became pretty much the center of the civilized world for maybe two centuries. A few scholars even take the view that "God" was being redefined in this era and that Ishtar was increasingly recognized as a sort of monotheistic deity, all other deities subordinated to "Her." This did not last, but for the record......... This is also the period when Ishtar was known universally in the Mid East as a Divine Spirit, all present, all wise, she who makes things happen, so to speak. And where the Sumerians portrayed Inanna as a spunky young woman, even if she had an "edge" to her, the Assyrians understood her as something along the lines of Queen Victoria, sassy, bold, smart as hell, and unafraid to speak her mind. It was in this era that the Epic of Gilgamesh took its final form, in which Ishtar is responsible for the Great Flood, and who regrets all the destruction afterward and vows to never cause such a catastrophic deluge ever again. Ishtar in this form was known outside of Assyria proper and she appears in the inscription from Deir Alla in today's Jordan, as -if the translation is correct, it is still in dispute among scholars- the deity who causes the destruction of Sodom for its evil behavior. And yes, as attested in the so-called Middle Assyrian Laws, the Assyrians were vehemently opposed to sodomy. There are a good number of texts from this period now available in translation which purport to recount the words of the Goddess as known in a role that is not all that different than the Chokhma in Proverbs 8 & 9, and the Shekhina in Wisdom of Solomon in the Apocrypha. That is, the parallelism is to Ishtar and the female Holy Spirit of the OT / Hebrew Bible. As far as I am concerned this parallelism is striking. Here are a few comments from Proverbs 8: "Hear how Wisdom [Chokhma] lifts her voice and Understanding [also Chokhma] cries out. She stands at the crossroads by the wayside, at the top of the hills, at the gate, at the entrance to the city" and calls out "Men it is to you I call.....understand, you simple fools, what it is to be shrewd..." "Listen! For I will speak plainly, ... I speak nothing but truth and my lips detest wicked talk..." It must be said that, as original as this spirited speech is, the tone throughout is identical to some of what I have read in Assyrian literature purporting to quote Ishtar. There is a point-of-view in common between the two "divine females" that is impossible to miss. How does anyone explain this? Does the Bible support a reading that allows for the possibility that Ishtar / Chokhma are one and the same? Obviously this is not a traditional Western reading but there are openings to exactly this kind of conclusion, starting with the story of Jonah and his visit to Nineveh. The Biblical story tells us that the people of Nineveh, at the preaching of Jonah, repented of their sins and, in effect, were saved. But at no point did they convert to anything. If they had it would seem to be a reasonable conclusion that we would have been told of the fact. Which is to say that we get a city filled with devotees of Ishtar recognized in the Bible as righteous and redeemed. We also find the same thing in Matthew 12 where the "men of Nineveh" will be with Christ at his future Advent. OK, what does this say? And it is important that there is a population of Assyrians who witness for Christ, isn't it? On what basis? I don't have a way to answer my own questions on the basis of scholarship alone. The best I can do is tell you the sense I make of all of this, and add that what it all means, as far as I am concerned, is a responsibility to assume a 'prophetic' voice and take that responsibility wherever it leads me. That is, it does not matter if I am, for now anyway, a minority of one, the truth is what it is. You suggested that maybe the best way to think about the historical Inanna is in terms of her having been filled with the Holy Spirit, that is, as one possible explanation for her life in the 27th century BC. That is a good way to think about things, but it just isn't sufficient when thinking about the next 2000 years. I do not believe that the Sumerians had it all figured out perfectly but they gave us a profound beginning with which to work. Was Ishtar "elevated" at a latter date? That is one way to think about Assyrian theology. Or did the Assyrians, as they claimed, which is an entirely plausible way to think about Assyrian theology, simply "unpack" inner meanings that had long been unclear? My view is that this is the better explanation even if maybe in the future there will be a still better way to think about things. At a minimum it seems altogether clear to me that the female Holy Spirit of the Hebrew Bible is real, and there is intrinsic appeal in thinking of her as ancient peoples thought about Ishtar. If it is a help, and the names mean exactly the same thing, call her Esther if you prefer. As a final observation, it should be noted that Ishtar's prime symbol wasn't a crescent, which was import but secondary, it was an 8 pointed star. While no-one can say with absolute certainty that Ishtar is identical with the Holy Spirit it makes excellent sense to me to make the identification. Nor can anyone say with certainty what the star of Bethlehem consisted of. But I like to think of it as emblematic of the Holy Spirit leading the Wise Men to Jesus. I also like to think that the star had 8 points and that the Wise Men would have trusted the star because they knew exactly what it represented, the guidance of the Holy Spirit. -conclusion -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <RadicalCentrism@googlegroups.com<mailto:RadicalCentrism@googlegroups.com>> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to radicalcentrism+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<mailto:radicalcentrism+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. 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