The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria | Page 5

her southern neighbour. Nevertheless, Assyria
possessed, along with the language of Babylonia, all the literature of
that country--indeed, it is from the libraries of her kings that we obtain
the best copies of the Babylonian religious texts, treasured and

preserved by her with all the veneration of which her religious mind
was capable,--and the religious fervour of the Oriental in most cases
leaves that of the European, or at least of the ordinary Briton, far
behind.
The later period in Assyria.
Assyria went to her downfall at the end of the seventh century before
Christ worshipping her national god Aššur, whose cult did not cease
with the destruction of her national independence. In fact, the city of
Aššur, the centre of that worship, continued to exist for a considerable
period; but for the history of the religion of Assyria, as preserved there,
we wait for the result of the excavations being carried on by the
Germans, should they be fortunate enough to obtain texts belonging to
the period following the fall of Nineveh.
In Babylonia.
Babylonia, on the other hand, continued the even tenor of her way.
More successful at the end of her independent political career than her
northern rival had been, she retained her faith, and remained the
unswerving worshipper of Merodach, the great god of Babylon, to
whom her priests attributed yet greater powers, and with whom all the
other gods were to all appearance identified. This tendency to
monotheism, however, never reached the culminating point--never
became absolute-- except, naturally, in the minds of those who,
dissociating themselves, for philosophical reasons, from the
superstitious teaching of the priests of Babylonia, decided for
themselves that there was but one God, and worshipped Him. That
orthodox Jews at that period may have found, in consequence of this
monotheistic tendency, converts, is not by any means
improbable--indeed, the names met with during the later period imply
that converts to Judaism were made.
The picture presented by the study.
Thus we see, from the various inscriptions, both Babylonian and
Assyrian--the former of an extremely early period--the growth and

development, with at least one branching off, of one of the most
important religious systems of the ancient world. It is not so important
for modern religion as the development of the beliefs of the Hebrews,
but as the creed of the people from which the Hebrew nation sprang,
and from which, therefore, it had its beginnings, both corporeal and
spiritual, it is such as no student of modern religious systems can afford
to neglect. Its legends, and therefore its teachings, as will be seen in
these pages, ultimately permeated the Semitic West, and may in some
cases even had penetrated Europe, not only through heathen Greece,
but also through the early Christians, who, being so many centuries
nearer the time of the Assyro-Babylonians, and also nearer the territory
which they anciently occupied, than we are, were far better acquainted
than the people of the present day with the legends and ideas which
they possessed.

CHAPTER II
THE RELIGION OF THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS
The Sumero-Akkadians and the Semites.
For the history of the development of the religion of the Babylonians
and Assyrians much naturally depends upon the composition of the
population of early Babylonia. There is hardly any doubt that the
Sumero-Akkadians were non-Semites of a fairly pure race, but the
country of their origin is still unknown, though a certain relationship
with the Mongolian and Turkish nationalities, probably reaching back
many centuries--perhaps thousands of years--before the earliest
accepted date, may be regarded as equally likely. Equally uncertain is
the date of the entry of the Semites, whose language ultimately
displaced the non-Semitic Sumero-Akkadian idioms, and whose kings
finally ruled over the land. During the third millennium before Christ
Semites, bearing Semitic names, and called Amorites, appear, and
probably formed the last considerable stratum of tribes of that race
which entered the land. The name Martu, the Sumero-Akkadian
equivalent of Amurru, "Amorite", is of frequent occurrence also before

this period. The eastern Mediterranean coast district, including
Palestine and the neighbouring tracts, was known by the Babylonians
and Assyrians as the land of the Amorites, a term which stood for the
West in general even when these regions no longer bore that name. The
Babylonians maintained their claim to sovereignty over that part as
long as they possessed the power to do so, and naturally exercised
considerable influence there. The existence in Palestine, Syria, and the
neighbouring states, of creeds containing the names of many
Babylonian divinities is therefore not to be wondered at, and the
presence of West Semitic divinities in the religion of the Babylonians
need not cause us any surprise.
The Babylonian script and its evidence.
In consequence of the determinative prefix for a god or a goddess being,
in the oldest