Source: Berossus, a 3rd-century BCE Babylonian priest, in his Babyloniaca (preserved via later Greek fragments, e.g., Syncellus), retells the Sumerian flood myth akin to Ziusudra (Eridu Genesis) or Utnapishtim (Gilgamesh).
I am working from the Babylonian Talmud as presented on Sefaria, mainly Berakhot, Rosh Hashanah, and Bava Metzia, plus the biblical Kimah verses in Job and Amos.
Berossus, a Babylonian priest writing in Greek (3rd century BCE), described a lineage of kings and a sequence of events spanning 432,000 years before the flood.
Research into ancient Hebrew scriptures and Sumerian, Babylonian, Akkadian, and Assyrian texts reveals narratives of beings arriving on Earth from elsewhere.
Accounts from various cultures, including the Zulu, Dogon, Sumerians, Babylonians, Mesoamericans, Native Americans, and First Nations Australians, describe receiving knowledge from beings originating from Sirius and the Pleiades star systems.
Babylonian narratives describe beings like Oannes and the Apkallu, who emerged from the sea to teach humans agriculture, writing, and city-building.
During the Babylonian Exile (6th century BCE), Yahweh’s role shifts again, emphasizing spiritual endurance and hope for restoration, which resonates with the psychological needs of displaced peoples.
This era coincided with the Babylonian Exile (circa 586–539 BCE), during which the Jewish elite were taken captive to Babylon after the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem.
Many scholars proposed that the name Yahweh had been deliberately woven throughout the Hebrew Scriptures during the Babylonian Exile.
Resistance to Babylonian Influence: The Babylonians worshiped a pantheon of gods, including Marduk.
In the 6th century BCE, during the Babylonian exile, the name Yahweh was deliberately inserted throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.
These tablets provide insights into the religious beliefs and cosmology of the Sumerians, Akkadians, and Babylonians.
In myths like the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation epic, he helps establish order by defeating Apsu, the primal waters of chaos, and becomes the custodian of wisdom.
Nebo, also known as Nabu, was a prominent deity in the Babylonian and Assyrian pantheons, revered as the god of wisdom, writing, and scribes.
In Isaiah 46:1, Nebo is mentioned alongside Bel, another major Babylonian god, as part of a critique of idolatry.
This passage contrasts the Babylonian gods, depicted as powerless idols burdening those who carry them, with the God of Israel, who is portrayed as sovereign and living.
The inclusion of Nebo reflects his importance in Babylonian culture and religion, as well as his association with Bel (likely Marduk, the chief deity of Babylon).
Together, their mention serves to emphasize the eventual downfall of Babylonian power and the supremacy of Israel's God.
Nebo, the Babylonian god of wisdom and writing, is referenced alongside Bel (Isaiah 46:1).
A deity worshiped by Babylonian settlers in Samaria (2 Kings 17:30).
Oannes and the Apkallu: In Sumerian and Babylonian traditions, Oannes and the Apkallu were half-human, half-fish beings who brought knowledge, writing, and civilization to humanity.
In fact, it would appear that civilizations such as those of the Akkadians,Phoenicians, Minoans, Assyrians, Babylonians, and even the Egyptians were merely devolved versions ofancient Sumer.
The Sumerian tablets went undeciphered until 1802, when a German high school teacher named GeorgGrotefend began systematically translating the trilingual Persian inscription of Darius the Great on theBehistun Rock, which included a version in Babylonian cuneiform Today nearly eighty percent ofcuneiform tablets have not yet been translated into English because the sheer quantity has overwhelmedthe world’s handful of translators.
Sargon, the first great leader of the Akkadian dynasty, which succeeded theSumerians, attributed his knowledge to the god Anu, while the Babylonian king Hammurabi was said tohave gained power through Marduk, again a reference to the accounts of the Anunnaki.
Turnage, an author who has studied more than three hundred translations of ancient Mesopotamianand Vedic writings, including the extrabiblical Book of Enoch, wrote, “After studying [Sitchin’s] theory, Ibegan my own contemplation of the pre-biblical Babylonian Epic of Creation or Enuma Elish.
… The creation of man was recorded on the sixth tablet, while the seventh wasreserved for the exaltation of the Babylonian national deity Marduk, the 'creator god.’ After my own studyof these chronicles, I concurred with Sitchin’s findings.
Whether out of some affection for humans or simply to thwart Enlil’splans, Enki passed along the murderous “secret of the gods” to one of his most prized human assistants,the Sumerian Utnapishtim In Babylonian legend, he was Atrahasis.
The editors of the Holman Bible Dictionary reported that Mount Sinai probably came horn the wordmeaning “shining” and was likely derived horn the Babylonian god Sin.
The Hebrew Mogen David, or Star of David, is of Babylonian origin and is indicative of howBabylonian/Sumerian culture was blended with Hebrew religion during the Jews’ captivity in Babylon.And it was in the Temple at Jerusalem that Jesus turned violent against the money changers.
In fact, it would appear that civilizations such as those of the Akkadians,Phoenicians, Minoans, Assyrians, Babylonians, and even the Egyptians were merely devolved versions ofancient Sumer.
The Sumerian tablets went undeciphered until 1802, when a German high school teacher named GeorgGrotefend began systematically translating the trilingual Persian inscription of Darius the Great on theBehistun Rock, which included a version in Babylonian cuneiform.
Sargon, the first great leader of the Akkadian dynasty, which succeeded theSumerians, attributed his knowledge to the god Anu, while the Babylonian king Hammurabi was said tohave gained power through Marduk, again a reference to the accounts of the Anunnaki.
Cultural Origins: The Anunnaki feature prominently in Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian myths.
He has also trained pastors in text interpretation, emphasizing that the biblical narratives are not about deities but rather about powerful beings, including the "sky people." He drew connections between the Bible's stories and ancient Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, and Akkadian narratives, suggesting that some figures, such as the Anunnaki and Elohim, could be described as extraterrestrial beings (ETs) in modern terms.
Babylonian Mythology: Myths involving gods battling sea monsters, such as Marduk versus Tiamat, reflect a common narrative theme.
The original text, according to the statements on the tablets, must have belonged to the city of Erech, and it appears to have been either written in, or translated into the Semitic Babylonian, at a very early period.
From the heading of the tablets giving his history, I suppose that Izdubar lived in the epoch immediately following the Flood, and I think, likewise, that he may have been the founder of the Babylonian monarchy, perhaps the Nimrod of Scripture.
The question might here be asked, "How is it that we find an early Chaldean document from Erech transported to Nineveh, copied, and placed in the royal library there?" On this point we can show that it was a common custom for the Assyrians to obtain and copy Babylonian works, and a considerable portion of Assyrian literature consists of these copies of older standard writings.
Now, the Babylonians believed in the existence of a patriarch named Sisit, the Xisuthrus of the Greeks, who was supposed to have been translated and to have attained to immortality without death.
In the opening of the account of the Flood there is a noticeable difference between the Cuneiform and Biblical narratives, for while in the Jewish account one God only is men tioned, the Cuneiform inscription mentions all the principal gods of the early Babylonian Pantheon as engaged in bringing about the Flood.
It is remarkable that the oldest traditions of the early Babylonians seem to center round the Persian Gulf.
Archaeological evidence supports the existence of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, confirming events like the Assyrian destruction of Judah and the Babylonian exile.
Marduk: Though originally a Babylonian deity, Marduk also had a place within the Assyrian religious system, especially after the conquest of Babylon.
The Enuma Elish, a Babylonian creation myth, celebrates Marduk's role in defeating chaos and establishing the universe.
Nergal: God of the underworld and plague, Nergal was also significant in Babylonian worship.
Ninurta: A warrior god who was associated with agriculture, hunting, and war, Ninurta had an important role in Babylonian rituals.
Tiamat: Although not worshipped in a traditional sense, Tiamat represented chaos and the primordial sea in Babylonian mythology and was significant in their cosmological understanding.
The lamb was a sacrificial icon in Babylonian rituals.
Origin: The Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian counterpart of Inanna.
The suggestion that Wadd may correspond to Babylonian or Assyrian fertility gods stems from shared characteristics and symbols found in ancient Semitic religions.
Role: Tammuz was a Sumerian and later Babylonian god associated with fertility, vegetation, and renewal.
The association of Wadd with Babylonian and Assyrian fertility gods arises from:
Wadd may correspond to Babylonian or Assyrian fertility gods.
Babylonian:Three times (every 1200 years), the gods were distressed by the disturbance from human overpopulation.
"Some Observations on the Assyro-Babylonian and Sumerian Flood Stories", in Dundes.
The Babylonian trinity was composed of Idea, Anu, and Bel.
But, compared with such ancient nations as the Egyptians and Babylonians, the Greeks were children.
Diodorus Siculus tells us that among the Babylonians there were twelve gods of the heavens, each personified by one of the signs of the zodiac, and worshipped in a certain month of the year.
"They raised many monuments of their power; and hence, among the Arabs, arose the custom of calling great ruins "buildings of the Adites." To this day the Arabs say "as old as Ad." In the Koran allusion is made to the edifices they built on "high places for vain uses;" expressions proving that their "idolatry was considered to have been tainted with Sabæism or star-worship." (Ibid.) "In these legends," says Lenormant, "we find traces of a wealthy nation, constructors of great buildings, with an advanced civilization, analogous to that of Chaldea, professing a religion similar to the Babylonian; a nation, in short, with whom material progress was allied to great moral depravity and obscene rites.
78), deciphered from the Babylonian tablets, shows that there was an original race of men at the beginning of Chaldean history, a dark race, the Zalmat-qaqadi, who were called Ad-mi, or Ad-ami; they were the race "who had fallen," and were contradistinguished from "the Sarku, or light race." The "fall" probably refers to their destruction by a deluge, in consequence of their moral degradation and the indignation of the gods.
Not only infant baptism by water was found both in the old Babylonian religion and among the Mexicans, but an offering of cakes, which is recorded by the prophet Jeremiah as part of the worship of the Babylonian goddess-mother, "the Queen of Heaven," was also found in the ritual of the Aztecs.