By: Marshall Ramsey II, Worthy News U.S. Correspondent
UR, Iraq (ancient Mesopotamia) -- (WorthyNews) Speculation has come and gone over the years regarding the Bible and its comparison to so-called mythologies of ancient and not-so-ancient civilizations. Usually comparisons are made but are never regarded as being the same people being called by different names. This can lead to much frustration, both without and within the Christian faith, with some saying they are the same people and others saying the opposite while still others (those among the Christian faith) who say it is a sin even to consider that they are the same.
Having dealt with this issue and examined the evidence, I have concluded that in certain cases there are people mentioned in the 'mythologies' of yesteryear who are the same as those mentioned in the Bible, albeit called by different names and some smearing of facts. One such case is the Sumerian King list. It contains a list of various rulers from Sumeria/Mesopotamia and the lengths of their reigns.
The major difficulty in reconciling the genealogy from Adam to Noah as listed in Genesis 5 is not the names but rather the length of the reigns of those mentioned. For instance, Adam, the father of all mankind, lived 930 years according to the Bible while according to the Sumerian King list the first ruler of man, called Alulim, ruled for eight sars, or 28,800 years. This is based on the assumption that a sar, a Sumerian unit used for measuring time, is 3,600 years long.
Knowing that the genealogy listed in the Sumerian King list (each king passed leadership on to his son) is the same as the one in the Bible, I deduced that the length of time used for a sar is inaccurate. At first, I figured that each year was a month. This proved to be wrong as the length of time using that standard figured out to be 241200 months, or 20,100 years. This figure is inaccurate for two reasons: 1) the length of the whole lives of the pre-Flood patriarchs from Adam to Noah when the flooding of Earth occurred, total only 1656 years; and 2) Earth isn't that old, not only according to biblical genealogy, but through mitochondrial DNA, which states the human race, as using the Bible as the foundation, is only about 6,000 years old, which fits with the information relayed in the Bible.
At first, I was frustrated, knowing that the two genealogies were the same, yet unable to reconcile the length of reigns to the timeline of the Bible, so I had the idea that every 100 years was a year. This, too, proved to be inaccurate as the total number of years added up to 2,412 - again, at odds with the Bible. I wrestled with this problem for many months.
Then the idea came to me: The timelines of the Sumerian King List overlap each other. While still unable to get the exact length of each reign, this proved very helpful. Since I knew that Adam and Alulim (Sumerian King List) were the same person and Enoch and En-men-dur-ana were the same person by virtue of an overlay system, I figured out that the patriarchs before the Flood lived and reigned at the same time, just over different locations and for different lengths. The breakthrough was coming.
One day, as I was considering the issue, God gave me the answer. Enoch reigned for about 300 years. The conversion standard of each figure in the sar, ner, and sossa being one year was wrong. Using this as the basis, I then converted the number of sars and ners listed for each reign of the ante-diluvian (pre-Flood) Sumerian King List. The following list shows the figures that I came up with and the scale that I used:
Enoch ruled as king for approximately 300 years. This figure, divided by 35 (the total number of
ners), totaled approximately 8.571 years per ner. This give each sar as roughly 51.4285 years, each
ner roughly 8.571 years, and each sossa as 0.857 years.
from Wikipedia: "The antediluvian reigns were measured in Sumerian numerical units known
as sars (units of 3600), ners (units of 600), and sosses (units of 60)."
Adam (Alulim): 8 sars - or - 411 years, 4 months, 26 days
Seth (Alalngar): 10 sars - or - 512 years, 3 months, 3 days
Enos (En-men-lu-ana): 12 sars - or - 617 years, 1 month, 10 days
Ca'inan (En-men-gal-ana): 8 sars - or - 411 years, 4 months, 26 days
Jared (Dumuzid, the Shepherd): 10 sars - or - 512 years, 3 months, 3 days
Mahaleleel (En-sipad-zid-ana): 8 sars - or - 411 years, 4 months, 26 days
Enoch (En-men-dur-ana): 5 sars 5 ners - or - 300 years (a few hours short)
Methuselah (Ubara-tutu): 5 sars 1 ner - or - 265 years, 8 months, 16 days
At this point the Sumerian King List gives the following statement after the reign of Ubara-tutu: "Then the flood swept over." This fits perfectly with the account of the Flood in Genesis, especially if one considers the meaning of Methuselah's name, which means "When he is dead, it shall come."(3)
The lists do seem to have a problem. In the Sumerian King List it mentions eight names, whereas in Genesis 5 it mentions ten.
This, actually, does not serve as a problem as one might think. If a person takes into account the length of Methuselah's life, 969 years, then there is still plenty of time for Lamech and Noah to be born before the Flood happens. Methuselah, a.k.a. Ubara-tutu, was apparently deposed from being king after a reign of over 265 years.
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_King_List#Antediluvian_rulers
(2) http://av1611.com/kjbp/kjv-bible-text/Ge-5.html
(3) http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Methuselah.html#.VQeditddXUs
UR, Iraq (ancient Mesopotamia) -- (WorthyNews) Speculation has come and gone over the years regarding the Bible and its comparison to so-called mythologies of ancient and not-so-ancient civilizations. Usually comparisons are made but are never regarded as being the same people being called by different names. This can lead to much frustration, both without and within the Christian faith, with some saying they are the same people and others saying the opposite while still others (those among the Christian faith) who say it is a sin even to consider that they are the same.
Having dealt with this issue and examined the evidence, I have concluded that in certain cases there are people mentioned in the 'mythologies' of yesteryear who are the same as those mentioned in the Bible, albeit called by different names and some smearing of facts. One such case is the Sumerian King list. It contains a list of various rulers from Sumeria/Mesopotamia and the lengths of their reigns.
The major difficulty in reconciling the genealogy from Adam to Noah as listed in Genesis 5 is not the names but rather the length of the reigns of those mentioned. For instance, Adam, the father of all mankind, lived 930 years according to the Bible while according to the Sumerian King list the first ruler of man, called Alulim, ruled for eight sars, or 28,800 years. This is based on the assumption that a sar, a Sumerian unit used for measuring time, is 3,600 years long.
Knowing that the genealogy listed in the Sumerian King list (each king passed leadership on to his son) is the same as the one in the Bible, I deduced that the length of time used for a sar is inaccurate. At first, I figured that each year was a month. This proved to be wrong as the length of time using that standard figured out to be 241200 months, or 20,100 years. This figure is inaccurate for two reasons: 1) the length of the whole lives of the pre-Flood patriarchs from Adam to Noah when the flooding of Earth occurred, total only 1656 years; and 2) Earth isn't that old, not only according to biblical genealogy, but through mitochondrial DNA, which states the human race, as using the Bible as the foundation, is only about 6,000 years old, which fits with the information relayed in the Bible.
At first, I was frustrated, knowing that the two genealogies were the same, yet unable to reconcile the length of reigns to the timeline of the Bible, so I had the idea that every 100 years was a year. This, too, proved to be inaccurate as the total number of years added up to 2,412 - again, at odds with the Bible. I wrestled with this problem for many months.
Then the idea came to me: The timelines of the Sumerian King List overlap each other. While still unable to get the exact length of each reign, this proved very helpful. Since I knew that Adam and Alulim (Sumerian King List) were the same person and Enoch and En-men-dur-ana were the same person by virtue of an overlay system, I figured out that the patriarchs before the Flood lived and reigned at the same time, just over different locations and for different lengths. The breakthrough was coming.
One day, as I was considering the issue, God gave me the answer. Enoch reigned for about 300 years. The conversion standard of each figure in the sar, ner, and sossa being one year was wrong. Using this as the basis, I then converted the number of sars and ners listed for each reign of the ante-diluvian (pre-Flood) Sumerian King List. The following list shows the figures that I came up with and the scale that I used:
Enoch ruled as king for approximately 300 years. This figure, divided by 35 (the total number of
ners), totaled approximately 8.571 years per ner. This give each sar as roughly 51.4285 years, each
ner roughly 8.571 years, and each sossa as 0.857 years.
from Wikipedia: "The antediluvian reigns were measured in Sumerian numerical units known
as sars (units of 3600), ners (units of 600), and sosses (units of 60)."
Adam (Alulim): 8 sars - or - 411 years, 4 months, 26 days
Seth (Alalngar): 10 sars - or - 512 years, 3 months, 3 days
Enos (En-men-lu-ana): 12 sars - or - 617 years, 1 month, 10 days
Ca'inan (En-men-gal-ana): 8 sars - or - 411 years, 4 months, 26 days
Jared (Dumuzid, the Shepherd): 10 sars - or - 512 years, 3 months, 3 days
Mahaleleel (En-sipad-zid-ana): 8 sars - or - 411 years, 4 months, 26 days
Enoch (En-men-dur-ana): 5 sars 5 ners - or - 300 years (a few hours short)
Methuselah (Ubara-tutu): 5 sars 1 ner - or - 265 years, 8 months, 16 days
At this point the Sumerian King List gives the following statement after the reign of Ubara-tutu: "Then the flood swept over." This fits perfectly with the account of the Flood in Genesis, especially if one considers the meaning of Methuselah's name, which means "When he is dead, it shall come."(3)
The lists do seem to have a problem. In the Sumerian King List it mentions eight names, whereas in Genesis 5 it mentions ten.
This, actually, does not serve as a problem as one might think. If a person takes into account the length of Methuselah's life, 969 years, then there is still plenty of time for Lamech and Noah to be born before the Flood happens. Methuselah, a.k.a. Ubara-tutu, was apparently deposed from being king after a reign of over 265 years.
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_King_List#Antediluvian_rulers
(2) http://av1611.com/kjbp/kjv-bible-text/Ge-5.html
(3) http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Methuselah.html#.VQeditddXUs
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