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Index To All Four Sections
ON THIS PAGE
Emphasis Mine In Bible Verses
Abraham
Why did God want Abraham to leave Ur and establish a kingdom in Canaan?
The 'Gods' Marduk and Sin (aka Nanna)
Islam
Ishtar/Inanna /Astarte/Ashtoreth
Israel’s Apostasy
Queen of Heaven
Lifeless Statues?
Summary and Conclusion
Abraham
All of which brings us to Abraham who once lived in the land of Ur but was instructed by God to leave there and travel to Canaan
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; (Genesis 12:1 NASB)
Abraham obeyed and packing up his family traveled northwest from Ur to Haran then, after his father died, set out southwest to Canaan. His brother Nahor did not accompany them opting to stay behind in Haran. Abraham sensibly skirted the Arabian Desert, going around its northern border. It might have been impossible, or at least far more difficult, for him to have taken the shortest route from Ur to Canaan, across miles of sand. The route he took probably had them traveling along or close to the banks of the Euphrates for much of the way.
But why did God want Abraham to leave Ur and establish a kingdom in Canaan?
Remember that the four ancient inscribed clay cylinders, one at each corner of Nabonidus' ziggurat said that the ziggurat in Ur, that king Ur-Nammu and his son Shulgi built was now old, therefore Nabonidus rebuilt it for Sin
Additionally, here are a some excerpts from the web site of The History of the Ancient Near East (Emphasis Added)
Ur excavated by a joint expedition of the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania under Sir Leonard Woolley between 1922 and 1934 was fabled as the city of the Sumerian moon god Nanna and the traditional home of the biblical patriarch Abraham (Genesis 12:4-5).
The founder of this dynasty Ur-Nammu built a great Ziggurat to the city's patron deity Nanna the Moon God. [01]
And from Christian Study Library (Emphasis Added)
Ur of the Chaldeans is generally identified with modern Tell Muqayyar in southern Iraq, about 160 km (as the bird flies) northwest of the modern city of Basra, well-known from the current Iraq-Iran war. This site was chiefly excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley between 1922 and 1934....
Dominating the city, both physically and spiritually, was the temple-tower or ziggurat which rose in three stages to one hundred and fifty feet above the streets. It can still be seen today in a partially restored state. At the base of this edifice were two temples, the vast market place, the temple library and school. Here students learned the basics, writing, reading and arithmetic, before specializing in accounting and banking, mathematics and astronomy, botany, medicine or geology, or in the religious texts. On the top of the ziggurat was a small temple built entirely of blue enameled bricks and dedicated to the moon-god Nanna which was the principal deity of Ur. [02]
Finally
The Great Ziggurat of Ur is one of the most breathtaking remains of what what is left of Ancient Ur. It was dedicated to Nanna, the God of the Moon, who was the patron deity of Ur (Complex Religion). The construction of the Ziggurat was authorized by King Ur-Nammu of the Third Dynasty of Ur and his son, King Shulgi. The Ziggurat consists of layers of mud-bricks, which have preserved the structure of Ziggurat throughout time. [03]
In summary, Abraham was called out of a hotbed of apostasy where man was building a kingdom dedicated to his gods to sow the seeds of God's kingdom on earth.
Which brings us to the ‘gods’ that the Zigurrats were dedicated to
The 'Gods' Marduk and Sin (aka Nanna)
Marduk
 Marduk, patron god of the city of Babylon and head of the Mesopotamian pantheon, was one of the most important gods of the time. He was frequently associated with the 'snake-dragon' seen on glazed brick reliefs in Babylon. This creature had the scaly body of a dragon and a snake like head complete with a forked tongue. Its hind feet resembled the claws of a bird and its front feet looked like lion's paws.
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Marduk later came to be known as Bel, a name derived from the Semitic word baal, or lord. "Bel had all the attributes of Marduk, and his status and cult were much the same" [04]
There are a few references to Babylon's Marduk and Bel in the Old Testament. For example,
The word which the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet: "Declare and proclaim among the nations. Proclaim it and lift up a standard. Do not conceal it but say, 'Babylon has been captured, Bel has been put to shame, Marduk has been shattered; Her images have been put to shame, her idols have been shattered.' (Jeremiah 50:1-2 NASB)
I will punish Bel in Babylon, And I will make what he has swallowed come out of his mouth; And the nations will no longer stream to him. Even the wall of Babylon has fallen down! (Jeremiah 51:44 NASB)
Sin / Nanna
In order to figure out who "Sin" was, we have to go back to the ancient Sumerians who worshipped a Moon-god, called Nanna in Sumerian, and Su'en or Sin in Akkadian.
Although Nanna was associated with the new or full moon, Sin was affiliated with the crescent moon.
Judging by the sheer number of artifacts connected to this Moon-god he was very clearly one of the most important deities in the Mesopotamian pantheon. As a matter of fact, the symbol of the crescent moon can be found everywhere in the ancient world - on seal impressions, steles, pottery, amulets, clay tablets, cylinders, weights, jewelry, wall murals, etc.
As the New World Encyclopedia says ...
Sin's status was very formidable, not only in terms of the temples dedicated to him, but also in terms of astrology, which became a prominent feature of later Mesopotamian religion and even legal matters. For an entire millennium - from 1900 to 900 B.C.E. Sîn's name is invoked as a witness to international treaties and covenants made by the Babylonian kings. His attribute of wisdom was particularly expressed in the science of astrology, in which the observation of the moon's phases was an important factor. [05]
And goes on to say...
"The moon played a key role in Mesopotamian religious culture. As it moved through its phases, people learned to keep their calendars based on the lunar month. Nanna (or Suen/Sîn) was sometimes pictured as riding his crescent moon-boat as it made its monthly journey through the skies. Some sources indicate that the moon god was called by different names according to various phases of the moon. Sin was especially associated with the crescent moon, while the older Sumerian name Nanna was connected either to the full or the new moon. [06]
In fact, the Stele of Ur-Nammu (left) shows the king praying or making an offering to Sin represented by a large crescent moon at the top of the stele.
Which brings us to...
Islam
Some Christian writers have seen a connection between Sin and the Muslim god Allah. The pre-Islamic Arabs in Mecca worshipped the moon and the sun, with the former being the chief deity. This makes it entirely possible, probable even, that they named this deity ilah - the generic word for god in Arabic, and that Islam adopted Sin's crescent as its symbol.
That the pre-Islamic worship of the sun and moon was derived from the religions of ancient Babylon is not at all improbable when one considers all the factors,
The moon played such a key role in Mesopotamian religious culture that the people learned to keep their calendars based on the lunar month.
Ancient Mecca that lay just over 1000 miles southwest of ancient Babylon, was "an oasis on the old caravan trade route that linked the Mediterranean world with South Arabia, East Africa, and South Asia" [07]
Additionally, in order to end division among his people in Mecca, Muhammad elevated the moon god Ilah to the chief and only god... Al-Ilah (The God) or Allah, the Supreme Being.
It seems hard to believe that it is merely coincidence that to this day, the crescent moon is a symbol of Islam and Muslims use a lunar calendar.
And how is all this relevant to our world?
If, as seems very likely, Islam's crescent symbol originated with the moon god "Sin" then we can conclude that the religions of ancient Babylon have very effectively spread all over this planet and now claims millions of followers.
However, it doesn't stop there...
Ishtar/Inanna /Astarte/Ashtoreth
In Mesopotamian mythology Nanna or Sin's best-known offspring were the sun god Shamash and Ishtar (Inanna), the goddess of love and war. In fact these three formed "an astral triad of divinities". [08]
The centralizing tendency in Mesopotamian religion led to this incorporation in the divine triad consisting of Sîn, Shamash, and Ishtar, respectively personifying the moon, the sun, and the planet Venus. In this trinity, the moon held the central position. However, it is likely that Ishtar came to play the more important cultural role as time went on, as she rose to the key position among the Mesopotamian goddesses, while younger deities like Marduk came to predominate on the male side of the pantheon. [09]
It is also believed that Ishtar’s descent to and ascent from the underworld corresponds with the movements of Venus in the sky. In fact, all Babylonian gods were all associated with the sun, moon, or various planets or stars.
An ancient basalt stele which is presently housed in Sanliurfa Museum in Turkey may have been unearthed in Babylon. It portrays Nabonidus standing before symbols of the principal gods he served. About this stele, the British Museum once wrote
"Comparison with other sculptures, on which he is named, suggest that it represents King Nabonidus. He wears the traditional dress of a Babylonian king, and holds a standard which was possibly carried during a religious ceremony. Above him are the divine symbols of the moon-god, Sin, (closest to him), the planet Venus of Ishtar and the winged disc of the sun-god Shamash"
Note: Although Marduk was the chief or national god of Babylon, the Ishtar Gate constructed by Nebuchadnezzar II was the main entrance into the city of Babylon.
It was named after and dedicated to the Babylonian goddess represented by a lion.
The wall of the gate were also decorated with a relief of Marduk's dragon as shown on the left.
The Assyrian capital of Nineveh was also a center of worship of the goddess Ishtar to whom they apparently attributed the city's early importance.
The same goddess seemed to be worshipped under different names, depending on the region and/or culture. The tragedy is that Ishtar also came to play a major role among the Canaanites as Astarte, while the Israelites knew her as Ashtoreth.
Israel's Apostasy
Ashtoreth
Ashtoreth, popularly supposed to be goddess of fertility, is an ancient goddess known by many names. Ashtoreth in Hebrew, Astarte in Greek, Ishtar in Akkadian (Akkad was the northern portion of ancient Babylonia), and Inanna in Sumerian. We find her in the New Testament under the name Artemis (Acts 19: 24-35) and Diana in Latin. In fact, the temple of Artemis in Ephesus was also known as the temple of Diana.
The Philistines had a temple devoted to Asheroth (1 Samuel 31:10), who is mentioned many times in the Scriptures, often in connection with Baal, the sun-god. For example
The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth. (Judges 3:7 NASB)
Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; thus they forsook the Lord and did not serve Him. (Judges 10:6 NASB)
And, as we know from many such verses in the Old Testament the worship of the female goddess not only infiltrated Israel but persisted through much its history. In spite of having everything a person could wish for, Solomon was led astray by his many wives
For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. (1 Kings 11:4-5 NASB)
Ashtoreth is called "the abomination of the Sidonians". In verses that tell us that King Josiah destroyed the 'high places',. Sidon (probably founded by Canaan's son Sidon thus Noah's grandson) was located just north of the land of Canaan and had at one point been conquered by the Babylonians.
The high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled. (2 Kings 23:13 NASB)
In other words, Israel's harlotry was clearly influenced by the nations directly descended from Canaan. (Genesis 10:15-18 specifically names, among others, the Sidonites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites)
In the following verses God’s anger and disgust at the behavior of the people is clearly illustrated by the fact that He told Jeremiah NOT to pray for them.
As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to spite Me".
"Do they spite Me?" declares the Lord. "Is it not themselves they spite, to their own shame?" Therefore thus says the Lord God, "Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast and on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched." (Jeremiah 7:16-20 NASB)
An Asherah
As said by International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
It is probable that it was originally an epithet of Ishtar (Ashtoreth) of Nineveh. In the West, however, Asherah and Ashtoreth came to be distinguished from one another, Asherah being exclusively the goddess of fertility, whereas Ashtoreth passed into a moon-goddess. [11]
It is entirely possible that Asherah was either the name of the goddess herself or of the idol itself represented by a tree trunk or pole. The following verses indicate the latter.
And the LORD said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will perform wonders that have never been done in any nation in all the world. All the people among whom you live will see the LORD’s work, for it is an awesome thing that I am doing with you. (Exodus 34:10 BSB)
Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the idols of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place. (Deuteronomy 12:3 BSB)
For the LORD will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that He gave their fathers, and He will scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their Asherah poles, provoking the LORD to anger. (1 Kings 14:15 BSB)
Queen of Heaven
Entire families were involved in the idolatry... the children gathered wood, the fathers kindled the fires, and the women made cakes for the queen of heaven, as she was called. The Israelites went so far as to attribute their peace and prosperity to this goddess, and refused to stop burning sacrifices or pour out drink offerings to her. They told Jeremiah...
As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we are not going to listen to you! But rather we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths, by burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had plenty of food and were well off and saw no misfortune.
But since we stopped burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have met our end by the sword and by famine." "And," said the women, "when we were burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and were pouring out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?" (Jeremiah 44:16-19 NASB)
All of which provoked God to great anger. He responded to this treachery by telling the people to go ahead and do as they wished, but to pay close attention to His words...
"Nevertheless hear the word of the Lord, all Judah who are living in the land of Egypt, 'Behold, I have sworn by My great name,' says the Lord, 'never shall My name be invoked again by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, "As the Lord God lives." 'Behold, I am watching over them for harm and not for good, and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will meet their end by the sword and by famine until they are completely gone. (Jeremiah 44:26-27 NASB)
The warnings were many and severe.
And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. (Deuteronomy 4:19 NASB)
If there is found in your midst, in any of your towns, which the Lord your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, by transgressing His covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, which I have not commanded, and if it is told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. Behold, if it is true and the thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil deed to your gates, that is, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them to death. (Deuteronomy 17:2-5 NASB)
They will spread them out to the sun, the moon and to all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served, and which they have gone after and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered or buried; they will be as dung on the face of the ground. (Jeremiah 8:2 NASB)
So I will stretch out My hand against Judah And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, And the names of the idolatrous priests along with the priests. "And those who bow down on the housetops to the host of heaven, And those who bow down and swear to the Lord and yet swear by Milcom, (Zephaniah 1:4-5 NASB)
With good reason.
Lifeless Statues?
It is interesting to note that each deity has specific characteristics such as nature, gender and authority, which makes it more than likely that the physical statues, that provided a point of focus, were representations of very powerful forces.
In other words, Nanna, Marduk, Sin, Inanna, Astarte, Isis etc are simply names given specific spirits.
Similarly, Apollo was a real personality; Osiris was a genuine underworld fiend; Hecate actually lived and still does!
The Hindu gods 'Shiva' and the eight-armed 'Kali' are not just images conjured up in someone's imagination.
Goddess Worship In Our Day
Did goddess worship die out with the ancient religions?
Far from it!
In recent years there has been a tremendous revival of goddess worship, usually warmly embraced by the feminist movement.
For example, the Fellowship of Isis (FOI), dedicated specifically to the Egyptian goddess Isis, is an international spiritual organization devoted to promoting awareness of the Goddess. Olivia Robertson, one of the co-founders, has described Isis as "God in female form." [12]
Virtually anyone who is interested in the environmentally friendly 'green movement' has probably heard of Gaia. What they may not know is that Gaia was the primal Greek goddess personifying the Earth, the Greek version of the Earth Mother, and that they believe that 'she' needs to be protected from destructive human abuse. In other words, Gaia is the occult belief that the earth is alive, and has a spirit, and that "she" caused life to spring forth from the earth.
An article on Sage Journals
In a modern society arguably disenchanted with religion, numerous Western women are transfixing their reality by making God in their own image. This compelling phenomenon is known as ‘'he Goddess Movement' a non-centralised religious current of neo-pagan origin that reveres the Divine as feminine. [13]
For example, HerChurch is led by Stacy Boorn, priestess of Ritual and Visionary Leader. (Emphasis Added)
Their worship services include the use of Anglican-numerated rosary beads and publicly recite prayers that are liberating and empowering, including "Our Mother Who is Within Us," by Mariam Teresa Winters (a Roman Catholic Feminist) and "Hail Goddess Full of Grace," by Carol Christ, (a Goddess Feminist). Then, Tibetan bowls, bells, incense, water, she-icons, Goddess Rosaries, candles, stones, and sacred space are provided for individual meditation. [14]
The Covenant of the Goddess
... is one of the largest and oldest Wiccan religious organizations. The Covenant is incorporated as a non - profit religious organization in California, though it has grown to be an international organization. It is a confederation of covens and solitaires of various traditions, who share in the worship of the Goddess and the Old Gods and subscribe to a common code of ethics ... ... It's practitioners are reviving ancient Pagan practices and beliefs of pre-Christian Europe and adapting them to contemporary life. [15]
Summary and Conclusion
A Tale of Two Kingdoms
Babylon was founded by Noah's great-grandson Nimrod who founded several kingdoms including Babylon and Assyria - both mortal enemies of Israel. (Genesis 10:8-12) In fact the prophet Micah called Assyria the "land of Nimrod" (Micah 5:6 NASB)
Babylon reached its zenith under Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century BC. The Babylonians worshipped a pantheon of deities (many of whom were associated with celestial bodies) and built impressive temples devoted to them.
This kingdom would prove itself a mortal enemy of not only the nation of Israel, but of God Himself. Although the physical city of Babylon no longer exists the tentacles of its spiritual heritage morphed as it spread far and wide digging its claws into the world of men.
The other kingdom began with a single man who lived where ziggurats were erected to false gods. He was called out of this land to journey some distance away to Canaan, to sow the seeds of God's kingdom, that will eventually destroy the first.
"Babylon" is not a nation, but a spiritual kingdom, that reached back to Shinar and the tower of Babel, then physically and/or spiritually persisted in the physical kingdom of Babylon and other nations as diverse as Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and Rome, all of whom wreaked havoc on Israel.
This kingdom, the antitheses of Jerusalem, is alive and well and still endeavors to carry away captives and win the battle.
Until finally defeated, it will extend its tentacles into the future when spiritual apostasy and pure unmitigated evil will peak under the regime of the beast.
Continue On To The Seven Kings HERE
End Notes
[01] Ancient Ur (Tell Muqayyar) Excavations at Ur by Sir Leonard Wooley
https://ancientneareast.tripod.com/Ur_Muqayyar.html
[02] Cornelis van Dam. Ur of the Chaldeans. The Old Testament and Archaeology
https://www.christianstudylibrary.org/article/ur-chaldeans
[03] The Mesopotamia Guided Tour https://6ias-sch.weebly.com/the-great-ziggurat-of-ur-tell-el-muqayyar-dhi-qar-province-iraq.html
[04] Encyclopædia Britannica Marduk Babylonian god. http://www.britannica.com/topic/Marduk
[05] New World Encyclopedia. Sin mythology. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Sin_(mythology)
[06] ibid.
[07] Encyclopædia Britannica. Mecca. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/371782/Mecca/37835/History
[08] Shamash. Mesopotamian god. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/538274/Shamash
[09] New World Encyclopedia. Sin mythology. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Sin_(mythology)
[10] http://thegoddesshouse.blogspot.com/2010/11/astarte-canaanite-goddess-of-fertility.html
[11] Asherah. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. https://www.internationalstandardbible.com/A/asherah.html
[12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellowship_of_Isis
[13] Sage Journals. Téa Nicolae The Western Revival of Goddess Worship.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09667350221135089
[14] ELCA Church Worships the Divine Feminine
https://pulpitandpen.org/2016/08/20/elca-church-worships-the-divine-feminine/
[15] About CoG . An Overview of the Covenant of the Goddess. https://cog.org/about-cog
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