The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria | Page 3

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THE RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA By Theophilus G.
Pinches, LL.D.
First Published 1906 by Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd.
Etext prepared by John Bickers, [email protected] and
Dagny, [email protected]

THE RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
BY
THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, LL.D.
Lecturer in Assyrian at University College, London, Author of "The
Old Testament in the Light of the Records of Assyria and Babylonia";
"The Bronze Ornaments of the Palace Gates of Balewat" etc. etc.

PREPARER'S NOTE
The original text contains a number of characters that are not available
even in 8-bit Windows text, such as H with a breve below it in
Hammurabi, S with a breve, S and T with a dot below them, U with
macron, and superscript M in Tašmêtum. These have been left in the
e-text as the base letter.
The 8-bit version of this text includes Windows font characters like S
with a caron above it (pronounced /sh/) as in Šamaš, etc. These may be
lost in 7-bit versions of the text, or when viewed with different fonts.
Greek text has been transliterated within brackets "{}" using an Oxford
English Dictionary alphabet table. Diacritical marks have been lost.

THE RELIGION OF THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS

CHAPTER I
FOREWORD
Position, and Period.
The religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians was the polytheistic
faith professed by the peoples inhabiting the Tigris and Euphrates
valleys from what may be regarded as the dawn of history until the

Christian era began, or, at least, until the inhabitants were brought
under the influence of Christianity. The chronological period covered
may be roughly estimated at about 5000 years. The belief of the people,
at the end of that time, being Babylonian heathenism leavened with
Judaism, the country was probably ripe for the reception of the new
faith. Christianity, however, by no means replaced the earlier
polytheism, as is evidenced by the fact, that the worship of Nebo and
the gods associated with him continued until the fourth century of the
Christian era.
By whom followed.
It was the faith of two distinct peoples--the Sumero-Akkadians, and the
Assyro-Babylonians. In what country it had its beginnings is
unknown--it comes before us, even at the earliest period, as a faith
already well-developed, and from that fact, as well as from the names
of the numerous deities, it is clear that it began with the former
race--the Sumero-Akkadians--who spoke a non-Semitic language
largely affected by phonetic decay, and in which the grammatical forms
had in certain cases become confused to such an extent that those who
study it ask themselves whether the people who spoke it were able to
understand each other without recourse to devices such as the "tones"
to which the Chinese resort. With few exceptions, the names of the
gods which the inscriptions reveal to us are all derived from this
non-Semitic