Gu-Edinna;Kisad
Edini
The ancient name of the alluvial plain of Babylonia was
Gu-Edinna or Kisad Edina,although some archeologists believe the
name was properly restricted to "the plain" on the western
bank of the river where the Bedouins pastured the flocks of their
Babylonian masters. This "bank" or kisad, together with the
corresponding western bank of the Tigris (according to Hommel the
modern Shatt el-Uai), gave its name to the land of Chesed, hence the
Kasdim/Kasdin of the Old Testament. In the early inscriptions of
Lagash the whole district is known as Gu-Edinna, the Sumerian
equivalent of the Semitic Kisad Edini. The coast land was similarly
known as Gu-gbba (Semitic Kisad tamtim), the "bank of the sea."
The Sumerian cities of Lagash and Umma were approximately 20 miles
apart.Inscriptions from Gu-Edinna mention a king Entemena,who's
headless statue was also discovered,and stolen in 2003 when the
Bagdad Museum was looted.It was later recovered and returned to the
people of Iraq in 2006.Bearing the cuneiform inscription, "Entemena
Whom the God Enlil Loves," the statue is one of the most
significant and historic artifacts returned to the Iraqi National
Museum in Baghdad.It is the oldest known representation of a
Mesopotamian king.The inscription recorded a treaty with Lagash and
the recovery of boundaries.The names mentioned in the inscription
come from the area Biblical evidence gives for pre flood Genesis.Kish
is the Biblical kingdom of Cush.The Gutians are believed to have
retained the name of Gu-Edinna.
Document I
“By
the immutable word of Enlil, king of the lands, father of the gods,
Ningirsu and Shara set a boundary to their lands.
Mesilim,
King of Kish, at the command of his deity Kadi,
set up a stele [a
boundary marker] in the plantation of that field.
Ush, ruler of
Umma, formed a plan to seize it.
That stele he broke in pieces,
into the plain of Lagash he advanced.
Ningirsu, the hero of
Enlil, by his just command, made war upon Umma.
At the command of
Enlil, his great net ensnared them.
He erected their burial mound
on the plain in that place.”
Document
II
“Eannatum,
ruler of Lagash, brother of the father of Entemena [who put up this
inscription] ...
for Enakalli, ruler of Umma, set the border to
the land.
He carried a canal from the great river to Guedin .
He
opened the field of Ningirsu on its border for 210 spans to the power
of Umma.
He ordered the royal field not to be seized. At the
canal he inscribed a stele.
He returned the stele of Mesilim to
its place.
He did not encroach on the plain of Mesilim.
At
the boundary-line of Ningirsu, as a protecting structure,
he
built the sanctuary of Enlil, the sanctuary of Ninkhursag .... By
harvesting,
the men of Umma had eaten one storehouse-full of the
grain of Nina [goddess of Oracles],
the grain of Ningirsu; he
caused them to bear a penalty.
They brought 144,000 gur,, a great
storehouse full, [as repayment].
The taking of this grain was not
to be repeated in the future.
Urlumma, ruler of Umma drained the
boundary canal of Ningirsu,
the boundary canal of Nina; those
steles he threw into the fire, he broke [them] in pieces;
he
destroyed the sanctuaries, the dwellings of the gods, the protecting
shrines, the buildings that had been made.
He was as puffed up as
the mountains; he crossed over the boundary canal of Ningirsu.
Enannatum, ruler of Lagash, went into battle in the field of
Ugigga, the irrigated field of Ningirsu.
Entemena, the beloved son
of Enannatum, completely overthrew him.
Urlumma fled. In the
midst of Umma he killed him.
He left behind 60 soldiers of his
force [dead] on the bank of the canal
"Meadow-
recognized-as-holy-from-the-great-dagger."
He left these
men-their bones on the plain.
He heaped up mounds for them in 5
places.
Then Ili Priest of Ininni of Esh in Girsu, he established
as a vassal ruler over Umma.”
Document
III
“Ili,
took the ruler of Umma into his hand.
He drained the boundary
canal of Ningirsu, a great protecting structure of Ningirsu,
unto
the bank of the Tigris above from the banks of Girsu.
He took the
grain of Lagash, a storehouse of 3600 gur .
Entemena, ruler of
Lagash declared hostilities on Ili, whom for a vassal he had set up.
Ili, ruler of Umma, wickedly flooded the dyked and irrigated
field;
he commanded that the boundary canal of Ningirsu;
the
boundary canal of Nina be ruined.... Enlil and Ninkhursag did not
permit [this to happen].
Entemena, ruler of Lagash, whose name
was spoken by Ningirsu,
restored their canal to its place
according to the righteous word of Enlil,
according to the
righteous word of Nina,
their canal which he had constructed from
the river Tigris to the great river,
the protecting structure,
its foundation he had made of stone ....”
John
Simmons, July 26, 2006
The name of King Ili was also
the name of the god,”Ili,”who was known as the one
god,and creator of all the other gods.That would indicate that the
knowledge of one God was handed down,rather than being fabricated by
Biblical scholors.It is most likely the source of the Canaanite and
early Hebrew god “El.”
Kadi
was a goddess of justice.The Anunaki were the Biblical Ananikim,or
the people of Anunaki.In Sumerrian legend they were the seven judges
of the underworld.In the Gingamesh epic,they were watchers and the
the children of the god of heaven.Edin is also mentioned in the tale
of “Inana and Bilulu.”Edin-Lila indicates the plain,or
bank,”of Ili the Creator.
“Then
the son of old woman Bilulu, matriarch and her own mistress, --
Jirjire, a man on his own, fit for the fields and a knowledgeable
man --
was filling pen and fold with his captured cattle, and was
stacking his stacks and piles of grain.
He left scattered in the
fields his victims struck down with the mace.
Sirru of Edin-lila,
no one's child and no one's friend, sat before him and held converse
with him.”
“My
lady went to Bilulu in Edin-lila.
Her son Jirjire like the wind
there did ......
Sirru of Edin-lila, no one's child and no one's
friend, .......”
If Ili can
accurately be equated with El,which appears to be the case,it is
among other evidence that the Genesis stories were handed down from
more ancient sources,and not fabricated by later scribes:
“Like
mankind, when first created,
They knew not the eating of
bread,
Knew not the dressing of garments,
Ate plants with their
mouths like sheep,
Drank water from the ditch.”
That
inscription mirrors the two Biblical scriptures that indicate early
man ate “plants” only.
Genesis 2:29:
“And
God said,Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed,
which is
upon the face of the earth,and every tree,
in which is the fruit
of a tree yeilding seed,to you shall it be for meat.”
Genesis
9:3:
“Every living thing that liveth shall be meat
for you ,
even as the green herb have i given you all
things.”
Until Adam ate
from the tree of knowledge,He “knew not the dressing of
garments.” He certainly knew not how to cook bread,or
meat.According to the Bible,man didn't eat meat until after the
flood.The inscription.like the Bible,hints at the process of
evolution,although not from one species to another,which is only
scientific theory.
The inscription helps to
verify that the Biblical garden of Eden was not a Scribal
fabrication.That belief is based,in part,on the difficulty in
identifying the rivers mentioned in the Bible.Place
names,however,have a way of being changed over thousands of years,and
archeologists know that much of the land over 6,000 years ago is now
covered in silt.The land area of the Tigres-Euphrates valley has been
extended farther south,giving the possibility of some rivers and
streams being filled in with silt.Archeology knows that there is a
layer of silt eight feet thick in some areas,with no evidence of
activity.There is evidence of human activity above and below the
layer,indicating that a flood
had once covered the area.They may one day discover evidence of
ancient rivers under the silt.The important thing is that the
evidence shows the critics lack of evidence and knowledge of
history.When faced with actual historical events,they lose
credibility.That's not to say that science is wrong,but that
interpreters of scientific evidence can be wrong.Coupled with the
habit of leaving out crucial pieces that may not fortify the
critique,by the time the interpretation reaches the reader it may not
say what the scientists intended.Science is not
anti-Biblical,although that is the picture painted by Bible critics
and some Bible scholors.The Bible is not anti Scientific,one being
the study of Creation and the other the study of the
Creator.Contradictions between the Bible and science are for the most
part, man made,and do not always reflect reality. The fact that the
Bible may have been handed down from more ancient written and oral
sources does not take away the validity of the Bible.The Bible
doesn't state that
the
knowledge of Creation,the Flood and the Patriarchs was given
specifically to Abraham or Moses,only that they were confronted by
the true God.The Bible doesn't tell us how long that knowledge had
been available to man.The important thing is that Abraham and His
decendents were aware of what their ancestors had written
down.
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