3 - THE THREE WHO TO HEAVEN ASCENDED

Divine Encounters, as even Humankind’s earliest experiences have shown, can take many forms. Whether in the form of direct contact, through emissaries, by only hearing the God’s voice, in dreams or visions, there is one aspect common to all the experiences thus far described: they all take place on Earth.

Yet there was one more form of Divine Encounter, the utmost, and thus reserved for only a handful of chosen mortals: To be taken aloft to join the Gods in Heaven.

In much later times, Egyptian Pharaohs were subjected to elaborate mortuary rituals so that they might enjoy an Afterlife journey to the Divine Abode. But in the days before the Deluge, selected individuals ascended to Heaven and lived to tell about it. One ascent is recorded in Genesis; two are related in Sumerian texts.

All three require accepting as truthful the Sumerian assertion that there had been a developed civilization before the Deluge, one that was wiped out and buried under millions of tons of mud by the avalanche of water that engulfed Mesopotamia. This Sumerian assertion was not doubted by later generations. An Assyrian king (Ashurbanipal) boasted that he could "understand the enigmatic words in the stone carvings from the days before the Flood," and Assyrian and Babylonian texts often spoke of other knowledge and knowing individuals, of events and urban settlements, long ago before the Deluge.

The Bible, too, describes an advanced civilization with cities, crafts, and arts in respect to the line of Cain. Though no such details are provided in respect to the line of Seth, the very tale of Noah and the construction of the ark implies a state of affairs where people could already build seagoing vessels.

That such a civilization expressed itself in urban centers in Mesopotamia (the core of such advances) but in only magnificent artistry among the European branch of Cro-Magnons is quite possible. As a matter of fact, some of the images painted or drawn by the cave artists depict inexplicable structures or objects (Fig. 15).

Figure 15
 

They become meaningful if one accepts the possibility that Cro-Magnons had seen (or perhaps even traveled by) masted seagoing vessels - a possibility that could explain how Man crossed the two oceans 20,000 or even 30,000 years ago to reach America from the Old World.

(Native American legends of prehistoric arrivals by sea across the Pacific include the tale of Naymlap, the leader of a small armada of balsamwood boats, who carried in his lead boat a green stone through which he could hear the divine instructions for navigation and the point of landfall).

Indeed, the Sumerian tales of the two chosen individuals who ascended to Heaven pertain to the origins of human civilization and explain how it came about (before the Deluge). The first one is the tale recounted in what scholars call The Legend of Adapa. An intriguing aspect of the tale is that, prior to the heavenly ascent, Adapa was involved in an involuntary sea crossing to an unknown land because his boat was blown off course - an episode that is perhaps reflected in the recollections of early Americans and in the Cro-Magnon cave depictions.

Adapa, according to the ancient text, was a protégé of Enki. Allowed to live in Enki’s city Eridu (the very first settlement of the Anunnaki on Earth), "daily he attended the sanctuary of Eridu." Choosing him to become "as a model of men," Enki (in this text called by his initial epithet-name, E.A) "gave him wisdom, but did not give him eternal life." It is not just the similarity between the names Adapa and Adam, but also this statement, that led various scholars to see in the ancient tale of Adapa the forerunner (or inspiration for) the tale of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, who were allowed to eat of the Tree of Knowing but not of the Tree of Life.

The text then describes Adapa as a busybody, in charge of the services for which the Primitive Workers were brought over to the Edin: he supervises the bakers, assures water supplies, oversees the fishing for Eridu, and as an "ointment priest, clean of hands," tends to the offerings and prescribed rites.

One day "at the holy quay, the Quay of the New Moon" (the Moon was then the celestial body associated with Ea/Enki) "he boarded the sailboat," perhaps intending to just sail to catch fish. But then calamity struck:

Then a wind blew thither,

and without a rudder his boat drifted.

With the oar he steered his boat;

[he drifted] into the broad sea.

The following lines in the clay tablet were damaged, so that we are missing some details of what happened once Adapa had found himself adrift in the "broad sea" (the Persian Gulf). As the lines become legible again we read that a major storm, the South Wind, began to blow. It apparently unexpectedly changed direction, and instead of blowing from the sea toward land it blew toward the open ocean.

For seven days the storm blew, carrying Adapa to an unknown distant region. There, stranded, "at the place which is the home of the fishes, he took up a residence." We are not told how long he was stranded at that southern location, nor how he was finally rescued.

In his heavenly abode, according to the tale, Anu wondered why the South Wind "has not blown toward the land for seven days." His vizier Ilabrat answered him that it was because "Adapa, offspring of Ea, had broken the wing of the South Wind." Perplexed, Anu ("rising from his throne") said, "Let them fetch him hither!"

"At that, Ea, he who knows what pertains to Heaven," took charge of the preparations for the celestial journey. "He made Adapa wear his hair unkempt, and clothed him in mourning garb."

He then gave Adapa the following advice:

You are about to go before Anu, the king;

The road to heaven you will be taking.

When you approach the gate of Anu

the Gods Dumuzi and Gizzida

at the gate of Anu will be standing.

When they see you, they will ask you:

"Man, on account of whom do you look thus,

for whom so you wear mourning garb?"

To this question, Ea instructed Adapa, you must give the following answer: "Two Gods have vanished from our land, that is why I am thus." When they question you who the two Gods were, Ea continued, you must say, "Dumuzi and Gizzida they are." And, since the two Gods whose names you tell as being the vanished Gods for whom you mourn will be the very same two who guard the gate of Anu, Ea explained, "They will glance at each other, and laugh a lot, and will speak to Anu a good word about you."

This strategy, Ea explained, will get Adapa past the gate and "cause Anu to show you his benign face." But once inside, Ea warned, Adapa’s true test will come:

As you stand before Anu,

they will offer you bread;

it is Death, do not eat!

They will offer you water;

it is Death, do not drink!

They will offer you a garment;

put it on.

They will offer you oil;

anoint yourself with it!
"You must not neglect these instructions,"

Ea cautioned Adapa;

"to that which I have spoken, hold fast!"

Soon thereafter the emissary of Anu arrived. Anu, he said, gave the following instructions: "Adapa, he who broke the South Wind’s wing - bring him to me!"

And so speaking,

He made Adapa take the way to heaven, and to heaven he ascended.

"When he came to Heaven," the text continued, "and approached the gate of Anu," Dumuzi and Gizzida were standing there, as Ea had predicted. They questioned Adapa also as predicted, and Adapa answered as instructed, and the two Gods brought him "before the presence of Anu." Seeing him approach, Anu shouted, "Come closer, Adapa; Why did you break the South Wind’s wing?" In reply, Adapa related the story of his sea voyage, making sure that Anu realized it was all in the service of Ea. Hearing that, Anu’s anger to Adapa subsided, but grew instead at Ea. "It was he who did it!"

A nagging aspect of the tale thus far is the lack of clarity regarding the true circumstances of the sea voyage. Was the arrival in a distant land the result of an accidental blowing off course, or somehow deliberate? The damaged lines that deal with that portion of the events make a determination impossible; but a feeling that the whole excuse of a "broken wing" of the South Wind was a cover for some deliberate plan by Ea comes to us as we read and reread the ancient text.

Evidently Anu had such suspicions right men and there, for having heard Adapa’s tale he was puzzled, and asked:

Why did Ea to an unworthy human

disclose the ways of heaven and the plans of Earth -

rendering him distinguished, making a Shem/or him?

And, continuing such rhetorical questions, Anu asked:

"As for us, what shall we do about him?"

Since Adapa was not to blame for the whole incident, Anu wished to reward him. He ordered that bread, "the Bread of Life," be offered to Adapa; but Adapa, having been told by Ea that it will be the Bread of Death, refused to eat of it. They brought to him water, "the Water of Life"; but Adapa, forewarned by Ea that it would be the Water of Death, refused to drink.

But when they brought a garment he put it on, and when they brought oil he anointed himself.

Adapa’s peculiar behavior amazed Anu.

"Anu looked at him, and laughed at him."

"Come now, Adapa," Anu said,

"why did you not eat, why did you not drink?"

To which Adapa responded,

"Ea, my master, commanded me,

‘you shall not eat, you shall not drink.’ "
"When Anu heard this, wrath filled his heart."

He dispatched an emissary,

"one who knows the thoughts of the great Anunnaki,"

to discuss the matter with the Lord Ea.

The emissary, the partly damaged tablet relates, repeated the events in Heaven word for word. The tablet then becomes too damaged and illegible, so that we do not know Ea’s explanation for his odd instructions (that were, obviously, intended to sustain his decision to give Adapa knowledge but not immortality).

No matter how the discussion ended, Anu decided to send Adapa back to Earth; and since Adapa did use the oil to anoint himself, Anu decreed that back in Eridu Adapa’s destiny will be to start a line of priests who will be adept at curing diseases.

On the way back

Adapa, from the horizon of heaven

to the zenith of heaven cast a glance;

and he saw its awesomeness.

The interesting question, what was the mode of transportation by which Adapa had made the round-trip, seeing in the process the awesome expanse of the heavens, is answered by the ancient text only indirectly, when Anu wonders out loud why did Ea "make a Shem" for Adapa. This Akkadian word is usually translated "name."

But as we have elaborated in The 12th Planet, the term (MU in Sumerian) obtained this meaning from the shape of the stones erected to "commemorate the name" of a king - a shape that emulated the pointed skychambers of the Anunnaki. What Anu wondered, then, was, Why did Ea provide a skyrocket for Adapa?

Mesopotamian depictions show "Eaglemen" - Anunnaki astronauts in their dress uniforms - flanking and saluting a rocketlike Shem (Fig. 16a). Another depiction shows two such "Eaglemen" guarding the gateway of Anu (illustrating perhaps the Gods Dumuzi and Gizzida of the Adapa tale). The gate’s lintel (Fig. 16b) is decorated with the emblem of the Winged Disc, the celestial symbol of Nibiru, which establishes where the gateway was.

The celestial symbol of Enlil (the seven dots that stood for Earth as the seventh planet, counting from outside inward) and the celestial symbol of Enki, the Moon’s crescent, together with the depiction of the whole solar system (a central deity surrounded by a family of eleven planets) complete the heavenly background.

Figures 16a, 16b, and 16c
 

We also find the winged "Eaglemen," whose depictions undoubtedly inspired later notions of winged angels, flanking a Tree of Life; significantly, it often evoked the double helix of DNA (Fig. 16c), a reminder of the Garden of Eden tale.

Mesopotamian kings, boasting of their great knowledge, claimed that they were "scions of the wise Adapa." Such claims reflected the tradition that Adapa was granted not just priestly status, but was also taught scientific knowledge that in antiquity was associated with the priesthood, passed from one generation of priests to another in the sacred precincts.

Tablets that cataloged literary works kept on shelves in the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh mention, in their undamaged portions, at least two "books" relating to Adapa’s knowledge. One, whose title is damaged at its start, was on a shelf next to a text of "Writings from Before the Flood," and its second line reads "... which Adapa wrote at his dictation."

The suggestion that Adapa had written down knowledge dictated to him by a deity is enhanced by the title of another work attributed to Adapa by Sumerian sources. It was titled U.SAR Dingir ANUM Dingir ENLILA - "Writings Regarding Time, [from] Divine Anu and Divine Enlil" - and confirms the traditions that Adapa was tutored not only by Ea/Enki but also by Anu and Enlil, and that his knowledge ranged from that of curing diseases to astronomy, timekeeping, and the calendar.

One other book (i.e. a set of tablets) by Adapa that was listed on the shelves of the library of Nineveh was titled "Celestialship which to the Sage of Anu, Adapa [was given]." The Legend of Adapa texts repeatedly refer to the fact that Adapa was shown "the ways of heaven," enabling him to travel from Earth to the heavenly abode of Anu.

The implication that Adapa was shown a celestial route map ought to be taken as based on fact, for - incredibly - at least one such route map has been found. It is depicted on a clay disc, undoubtedly a copy of an earlier artifact, that was also discovered in the ruins of the royal library of Nineveh and that is now kept in the British Museum in London.

Divided into eight segments, it depicted (as evident from the undamaged portions. Fig. 17a) precise geometric shapes (some, such as an ellipse, unknown from other ancient artifacts), arrows, and accompanying notations in Akkadian that referred to various planets, stars, and constellations. Of particular interest is an almost-intact segment (Fig. 17b) whose notations (translated here into English) of space flight instructions identify it as the Route of Enlil from a mountainous planet (Nibiru) to Earth.

Figures 17a and 17b
 

Beyond Earth’s skies (the "Way of Enlil") lie four celestial bodies (which other texts identify as Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Venus). In between, the flight passes by seven planets.

The count of seven planets is significant. We consider Earth to be the third planet, counting from the Sun outward: Mercury, Venus, Earth. But for someone arriving from the outer limits of the solar system, the count would be Pluto as the first, Neptune as the second, Uranus as the third, Saturn and Jupiter as the fourth and fifth, Mars as the sixth, and Earth would be the seventh. In fact. Earth was so depicted (by the symbol of seven dots) on cylinder seals and monuments, oftentimes with Mars (the sixth) as a six-pointed "star" and Venus (the eighth) as an eight-pointed one.

Significant, too, though in other respects, is the fact that the route passes between the planets named in Sumerian DIL-GAN (Jupiter) and APIN (Mars). Mesopotamian astronomical texts referred to Mars as the planet "where the right course is set," where a turn is made as the drawing on the segment indicates. In Genesis Revisited we have presented considerable ancient and modern evidence in support of a conclusion that an ancient space base had existed on Mars.

The missing texts or the damaged portions of the Adapa Legend might have shed light on a puzzling aspect of the tale: If Ea foresaw all that would happen at the heavenly abode, what was the purpose of scheming to send Adapa aloft if, in the end, he was to be deprived of Eternal Life?

Tales from post-Diluvial times (such as that of Gilgamesh) indicate that offspring of a human and a God (or Goddess) deemed themselves worthy of Immortality, and went to great lengths to join the Gods to attain that. Was Adapa such a "demigod," and did he nag Ea to endow him with Immortality? The reference to Adapa as "offspring of Ea" is translated by some literally as "son of Ea," born to Enki by a human female. This would explain Ea’s scheme to pretend that Adapa’s wish is being granted, while in fact he maneuvered for the opposite result.

Adapa, without doubt, also bore the title "Son of Eridu" (Enki’s center). It was an honorific title that signified intelligence and education by schooling in Eridu’s renowned academies. In Sumerian times the "Sages of Eridu" were a class unto themselves, ancient savants of blessed memory. Their names and specialties were listed and recorded with great respect and reverence in countless texts.

According to those sources, the Sages of Eridu were seven in number. In her study of Assyrian sources, Rykle Borger ("Die Beschwerungsserie Bit Meshri und the Himmelfahrt Henochs" in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies) was intrigued by the fact that in respect to the seventh one, the text stated (in addition to the name and main call on fame, as for all those listed) that it was he "who to heaven ascended."

The Assyrian text calls him Utu-Abzu; Professor Borger concluded that he was the Assyrian "Enoch," because according to the biblical record, it was the seventh pre-Diluvial Patriarch, whom the Bible calls Enoch, who was taken by God to the heavenly abode.

While the biblical narrative lists for the pre-Diluvial Patriarchs who had preceded Enoch and for those who followed him their names, age when their firstborn son was begotten, and the age at which they died, it states in respect to Enoch, the seventh Patriarch, thus (we quote from the common English translation):

And Enoch lived sixty and five years

and begot Methuselah.

And Enoch walked with God

after he had begotten Methuselah three hundred years,

and begot sons and daughters.

And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty five years,

for Enoch walked with God and was gone, for God had taken him.

Even this short biblical report has more to it than meets the eye in translation because in the original Hebrew it is stated that "Enoch walked with the Elohim," and was taken aloft "by Elohim." The Hebrew term, as we have shown, stood for DIN.GIR in the Sumerian sources of Genesis. Thus it was the Anunnaki with whom Enoch "walked" and by whom he was taken aloft.

This gloss, as well as scientific data that could come only from the Sumerian sexagesimal system of mathematics and the Sumerian calendar that had originated in Nippur, are clues to the ancient sources of compositions thanks to which we know much more about Enoch than the laconic biblical sentence.

The first of these compositions is the Book of Jubilees that we have already mentioned. Filling in the details lacking in the biblical account of the ten pre-Diluvial Patriarchs, it asserts that Enoch’s "walking with the Elohim" was his "being with the angels of God six jubilees of years, and they showed him everything which is on Earth and in the heavens:"

He was the first among men that are born on Earth who learnt writing and knowledge and wisdom, and who wrote down the signs of heaven according to the order of their months in a book . . .

And he was the first to write a testimony, and he attested to the sons of Adam by the generations on Earth, and recounted the weeks of the jubilees and made known the days of the years;

And set in order the months and recounted the Sabbaths of the years as the angels made known to him.

And also what he saw in a vision of his sleep, what was and what will be as it will happen to the children of men throughout their generations.

According to this version of Enoch’s Divine Encounters, "he was taken from amongst the children of men" by the angels, who "conducted him into the Garden of Eden in majesty and honor." There, according to the Book of Jubilees, Enoch spent his time by "writing down the condemnations and judgments of the world," on account of which "God brought the waters of the Flood upon all the land of Eden."

Even greater detail is provided by the Pseudepigraphic Book of Enoch, in which the tale of Enoch is not part of the patriarchal tale but the principal subject of a major work. Composed in the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era, and based on ancient Mesopotamian sources as well as the biblical ones, it embellishes the old material with an angelology common in the author’s time.

The Hebrew original of the Book of Enoch is lost, but had surely existed because fragments thereof, mixed in with an Aramaic dialect (Aramaic having become by then the language of common daily usage), have been found among the Dead Sea scrolls. Widely quoted and translated into Greek and Latin, it was considered as holy scripture by nearly all the writers of the New Testament. With all that, the composition has survived mainly owing to much later translations into Ethiopic (known as "1 Enoch") and Slavonic ("2 Enoch," sometimes called The Book of the Secrets of Enoch).

The Book of Enoch describes in detail not one but two celestial journeys: the first one to learn the heavenly secrets, return, and impart the acquired knowledge to his sons. The second journey was one way only: Enoch did not return from it, and thus the biblical statement that Enoch was gone, for the Elohim had taken him. In the Book of Enoch it is a cadre of angels that perform the divinely ordained tasks.

The Bible states that Enoch "walked with the Elohim" well before he was taken aloft; the Book of Enoch enlarges on that pre-ascent period. It describes Enoch as a scribe with prophetic powers.

"Before these things Enoch was hidden, and no one of the Children of Adam knew where he was hidden, and where he abode ... his days were with the Holy Ones."

His Divine Encounters began with dreams and visions. "I saw in my sleep what I will now say with my tongue of flesh," he said of the start of his involvement with the Divine Ones.

It was more than a dream, it was a vision:

And the vision was shown to me thus:
In the vision, clouds invited me
and a mist summoned me;
the course of the stars and lightnings
sped and hastened me;
the winds in the vision caused me to fly
and lifted me upwards,
and bore me unto heaven.

Arriving in Heaven, he reached a wall "which is built of crystals and surrounded by tongues of fire." He braved the fire and came upon a house built of crystals whose ceiling emulated the starry sky and showed the paths of the stars. In his vision he then saw a second house, larger and more magnificent than the first.

Braving the fires that enflamed it, he saw inside a throne of crystal resting upon streams of fire; "its appearance was crystal and the wheels thereof as a shining sun." Seated on the throne was the Great Glory, but not even the angels could approach and behold His face because of the brilliance and magnificence of His glory. Enoch prostrated himself, hiding his face and trembling. But then "the Lord called me with His own mouth, and said, ‘Come hither, Enoch, and hear my words.'" Then an angel brought him closer, and he heard the Lord tell him that because he was a scribe and righteous, he will become an interceder for men and will be taught heavenly secrets.

It was after that dream-vision that Enoch’s journeys actually took place. They started one night, ninety days before his 365th birthday. As Enoch told it later to his sons,

I was alone in the house. I was in great trouble, weeping with my eyes, and was resting, and fell asleep in my couch.
And there appeared to me two men, exceedingly big, such as I have never seen on Earth.

Their faces shone like the Sun, their eyes were like a burning light, and fire was coming out of their mouths.

Their clothing, purple in appearance, was different from each other; and their arms were like golden wings.

They stood at the head of my couch, and called upon me by my name.

Thus awakened from his sleep, Enoch continued, "I saw clearly those two men standing in front of me." Unlike the first dream-vision, this was more than just a dreamlike vision; this time it was for real!

"I stood up beside my couch, and bowed down to them," Enoch went on, "and was seized with fear, and covered my face from terror."

Then the two emissaries spoke up, saying, "Have courage, Enoch, do not fear, for the Eternal Lord hath sent us to thee. Behold, today thou shalt go up with us to the heavens."

They instructed Enoch to prepare himself for the celestial journey by telling his sons and servants all that they should do in the house while he was gone, and that no one should seek him, "until the Lord return thee to them." Summoning his two oldest sons, Metushelah and Regim, Enoch told them, "I know not whither I go nor what will befall me."

Therefore, he instructed them to be righteous and just and keep the faith of one Almighty God. He was still speaking to his sons when "the two angels took him on their wings and bore him up unto the First Heaven." It was a cloudy place, and he saw mere "a very great sea, greater than the earthly sea."

• In that first stop Enoch was shown the secrets of meteorology, after which he was "carried up" to,

• the Second Heaven, where he saw prisoners tormented, their sin having been "not obeying the Lord’s commands."

• In the Third Heaven, whence the two angels then took him, he saw Paradise with the Tree of Life.

• The Fourth Heaven was the place of the longest stop, where Enoch was shown the secrets of the Sun and Moon, of stars and zodiacal constellations, and of the calendar.

• The Fifth Heaven was the "end of Heaven and Earth" and the banishment place of "the angels who have connected themselves with women." It was a "chaotic and horrible place," from which "seven stars of heaven" could be seen "bound together." It was there that the first part of the celestial journey was completed.

On the second leg of the journey Enoch encountered the various classes of angels in an ascending order: Cherubim and Seraphim and great Archangels, seven ranks of angels in all.

Passing through the Sixth Heaven and the Seventh Heaven, Enoch reached the Eighth Heaven; there the stars that make up the constellations could already be seen; and as Enoch ascended yet higher, he could see from the Ninth Heaven "the heavenly homes of the twelve signs of the zodiac."

Finally he reached the Tenth Heaven, where he was "brought before the Lord’s face," a sight too awesome, Enoch later said, to be described.

Terrified, Enoch "fell prone and bowed down to the Lord." And then he heard the Lord say, "arise Enoch, have no fear, arise and stand before my face and gain eternity." And the Lord commanded the archangel Michael to change Enoch’s earthly garments, clothe him in divine garments, and anoint him. Then the Lord told the archangel Pravuel to "bring out the books from the holy storehouse, and a reed for quick-writing, and give it to Enoch so that he would write down all that the archangel will read to him, all the commandments and teachings."

For thirty days and thirty nights Pravuel was dictating and Enoch was writing down all the secrets of,

"the works of heaven, earth and sea, and all the elements, their passages and goings, and the thunderings of the thunder; and the Sun and Moon, the goings and changes of the stars, the seasons, years, days and hours" and "all human things, the tongue of every human song... and all things fitting to learn."

The writings filled up 360 books.

Then the Lord himself, letting Enoch sit on His left beside the archangel Gabriel, told Enoch how Heaven and Earth and all upon it were created. Then the Lord told Enoch that he would be returned to Earth so that he could relate all that he had learned to his sons, and give them the handwritten books, to pass the books from generation to generation. But his stay on Earth would be for a term of thirty days only, "and after thirty days I shall send my angel for thee, and he will take thee from Earth and from thy sons, to me."

And so it was, at the end of the celestial stay, that the two angels returned Enoch to his home, bringing him back to his couch at night. Summoning his sons and all in his household, Enoch related to them his experiences and described to them the contents of the books: the measurements and descriptions of the stars, the length of the Sun’s circle, the changes of the seasons due to the solstices and equinoxes, and other secrets regarding the calendar.

Then he instructed his sons to be patient and gentle, to give alms to the poor, to be righteous and faithful, and to keep all of the Lord’s commandments.

Enoch kept talking and instructing until the last moment, by which time word of his celestial visit and teachings had spread in town and a crowd of two thousand people had assembled to hear him. So the Lord sent a darkness upon the Earth, and the darkness engulfed the crowd and all who were near Enoch.

In the darkness, the angels swiftly lifted Enoch and carried him off "to the highest heaven."

And all the people saw,
but could not understand,
how Enoch had been taken.
And they went back to their homes,
those who had seen such a thing,
and glorified God.
And Metushelah and his brethren,
all the sons of Enoch, made haste
and erected an altar at the place
whence and where Enoch
had been taken up to heaven.

The second and final ascent of Enoch to Heaven, the scribe of the Book of Enoch stated at the book’s conclusion, took place exactly on the day and hour he was born, at age 365.

Was this tale of Enoch’s heavenly ascent(s) the equivalent of, or inspired by, the Sumerian tale of Adapa?

Certain details that are included in both tales point in that direction. Two angels, paralleling the Gods Dumuzi and Giz-zida in the Adapa legend, bring the Earthling "before the face of the Lord." The visitor’s garments are changed from earthly ones to divine ones. He is anointed. And finally, he is given great knowledge that he writes down in "books." In both instances, the visitor writes what is being dictated to him. These details appear within a framework that without doubt establishes the Sumerian origins of the Enoch "legend."

We have already pointed out that by ascribing Enoch’s Divine Encounters to "the Elohim" the biblical narrative divulged its Sumerian source. The Sumerian sexagesimal system reveals itself by some key numbers in the Enoch tale, such as in the sixty days of the first heavenly sojourn and the 360 "books" (tablets) dictated to Enoch. Most intriguing, however, is the assertion that the Divine Abode, site of the supreme Divine Encounter, was the Tenth Heaven.

This goes against all the notions of seven divine heavens, with the seventh most supreme, a notion based on the assumption that the ancient peoples knew only of seven celestial bodies (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) that could be observed in the skies surrounding the Earth.

The Sumerians, so much earlier than the Greeks or Romans, knew, however, of the complete makeup of the Solar System, a family they said of twelve members: Sun and Moon; Mercury, Venus, EARTH, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto (we are using the modem names); and a tenth planet, Nibiru, the planet that was the abode of Anu, the "king" or "lord" of all the Anunnaki "Gods."

(It is noteworthy that in Jewish medieval mysticism known as the Kaballah, the abode of God the Almighty is in the tenth Sefira, a "brilliance" or heavenly place, a Tenth Heaven. The Sefirot (plural) were usually depicted as concentric circles, often superimposed on the image of Kadmon ("The Ancient One") (Fig. 18) the center of which is called Yesod ("Foundation"), the tenth Ketter ("Crown" of God the Most High). Beyond it stretches the Ein Soff - infinity, infinite space.)

Figure 18
 

These are all definite links to the Sumerian sources. But whether it was the tale of Adapa that is reflected in the Enoch record is uncertain, for one can find more similarities between Enoch and a second pre-Diluvial Sumerian individual, EN.ME.DUR.ANNA ("Master of the Divine Tables of the Heavenly Bond"), also known as EN.ME.DUR.AN.KI ("Master of the Divine Tablets of the Bond Heaven-Earth").

Like the biblical reign-list of ten pre-Diluvian Patriarchs, so does the earlier Sumerian King List name ten pre-Diluvial rulers. In the biblical list, Enoch was the seventh. In the Sumerian list, Enmeduranki was the seventh. And, as in the case of Enoch, Enmeduranki was taken by two divine chaperons heavenward, to be taught a variety of sciences.

Whereas in the case of Adapa the possibility (mentioned above) that he was a seventh (sage) is not absolute (some Mesopotamian sources list him as the first of Eridu’s seven sages), the seventh position of Enmeduranki is certain; hence the scholarly opinion that it was he who was the Sumerian equivalent of the biblical Enoch. He came from Sippar, where in pre-Diluvial times the Spaceport of the Anunnaki was located, with Utu ("Shamash" in later times), a grandson of Enlil, as its commander.

The Sumerian King Lists record a "reign" of 21,600 years (six Sars) for Enmeduranki in Sippar - a detail of much significance. First, it reveals that at a certain point in time the Anunnaki deemed selected humans qualified to act as the EN - "Chief" - of one of the pre-Diluvial settlements (in this case, Sippar) - an aspect of the phenomenon of demigods.

Secondly, in line with our suggestion for reconciling the Sumerian and biblical pre-Diluvial patriarchal life spans, it ought to be noted that 21,600 reduced by a factor of 60 results in 360. Although the Bible assigns to Enoch an earthly presence of 365 years, the Book of Enoch gives 360 as the number of books written by Enoch in which he recorded the knowledge given him. These details not only highlight the similarities between Enoch and Enmeduranki, but also support our solution for the Sumerian/biblical treatment of pre-Diluvial time spans.

The text detailing the ascent and training of Enmeduranki was pieced together from fragments of tablets, mostly from the royal library in Nineveh, then collated and published in an edited version by W.G. Lambert ("Enmeduranki and Related Material" in the Journal of Cuneiform Studies). The basic source is the record of pre-Diluvial events inscribed on clay tablets by a Babylonian king in support of his claim to the throne because he was a "distant scion of kingship, seed preserved from before the Flood, offspring of Enmeduranki who ruled in Sippar."

Having thus asserted his impressive ancestral link to a pre-Diluvial ruler, the Babylonian king went on to tell the story of Enmeduranki:

Enmeduranki was a prince in Sippar, beloved of Anu, Enlil and Ea. Shamash in the Bright Temple appointed him as priest. Shamash and Adad [took him] to the assembly [of the Gods].

Shamash, as mentioned, was a grandson of Enlil and commander of the Spaceport in Sippar in pre-Diluvial times and of the one of the Sinai peninsula thereafter. Sippar, rebuilt after the Deluge but no longer a Spaceport, was nevertheless revered as the link with the celestial justice of the DIN.GIR ("The Righteous/Just Ones of the Rocketships") and was the location of Sumer’s supreme court. Adad (Ishkur in Sumerian) was the youngest son of Enlil, and was granted Asia Minor as his domain. The texts described him as close to his niece Ishtar and his nephew Shamash.

It was the two, Adad and Shamash, who chaperoned Enmeduranki to the place where the Gods were assembled, presumably for evaluation and approval. Then,

Shamash and Adad [clothed? purified?] him,
Shamash and Adad set him on
a large throne of gold.
They showed him how to observe
oil on water -
a secret of Anu, Enlil and Ea.
They gave him a Divine Tablet,
The Kibdu, a secret of Heaven and Earth.
They put in his hand a cedar instrument,
a favorite of the great Gods . . .
They taught him how to make
calculations with numbers.

Having been taught the "secrets of Heaven and Earth," specifically including medicine and mathematics, Enmeduranki was returned to Sippar with instructions to reveal to the populace his Divine Encounter and to make the knowledge available to Humankind by passing the secrets from one priestly generation to another, father to son:

The learned savant,
who guards the secrets of the great Gods,
will bind his favored son with an oath
before Shamash and Adad.
By the Divine Tablets, with a stylus,
he will instruct him
in the secrets of the Gods.

The tablet with this text, now kept in the British Museum in London, has a postscript:

The Three Who to Heaven Ascended 69
Thus was the line of priests created,
those who are allowed
to approach Shamash and Adad.

According to this rendition of the heavenly ascent of Enmeduranki, his abode was in Sippar (the post-Diluvial "cult center" of Shamash), and it is there that he used the Divine Tablets to teach secret knowledge to his successor priests. This detail forges a link with the events of the Deluge, because according to Mesopotamian sources as also reported by Berossus (a Babylonian priest who in the second century B.C. compiled a "world history" in Greek), the tablets containing the knowledge revealed to Mankind by the Anunnaki before the Deluge were buried for safekeeping in Sippar.

In fact, the two tales - of the Sumerian Enmeduranki and of the biblical Enoch - contain even stronger links than that one to the Deluge. For, as we shall examine the story-behind-the-story, we shall come upon a sequence of events whose principal motivation was Divine Sex and whose culmination was a deliberate plan to eradicate Mankind.

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