Introduction

With such a powerful conception of reality and existence, it should not be surprising that something very like the Logos is present in most monotheistic and pantheistic theologies, albeit under different names and emphasis - Tao, Brahman, and Wisdom of God, to name a few. Aristotle managed to mangle the Logos into the First Cause or Prime Mover, which is where Thomas Aquinas and associated scholastic philosophers (including Spinoza) seem to have been derailed (Swinburne 1993, pg. 186; Hume Treatise 1.4.3 via Millican 2021, slide 410).

Even the complex theism of Egypt had a place for Logos. The Memphite Theology, as described on the Shabaka stone, a c. 700 BC copy of a much older text, explains how the supreme creator god Ptah speaks into existence the nine major gods (ie. Ennead) and the Earth. The analogy that would eventually bring forth the use of the Greek word Logos is expounded:

The sight of the eyes, the hearing of the ears, and the smelling the air by the nose, they report to the heart. It is this which causes every completed (concept) to come forth, and it is the tongue which announces what the heart thinks. Thus all the gods were formed and his Ennead was completed. Indeed, all the divine order really came into being through what the heart thought and the tongue commanded.

-Trans. John A. Wilson in Pritchard 1971, p. 2

The Memphite Theology - Its Purpose and Date (2010) by Boyo Ockinga

In the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible - for Christians, the Old Testament - various forms of the primitive roots amar (אָמַר) and dabar (דָּבָר), which mean ‘to utter’, ‘to say’, ‘to command’ or ‘to speak’, are often used to convey the same sense as the Logos. The prime example is Genesis chapter 1 - the first vision of creation - where God utters or speaks the "heavens and the earth" into existence. After God’s command, the Earth produces in kind. Several passages in the Bible such as Psalms 33:6-11 confirm this equation with the Logos:

By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,

And by the breath of His mouth all their host.

He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;

He lays up the deeps in storehouses.

Let all the earth fear the LORD;

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.

For He spoke, and it was done;

He commanded, and it stood fast.

The LORD nullifies the counsel of the nations;

He frustrates the plans of the peoples.

The counsel of the LORD stands forever,

The plans of His heart from generation to generation.

These verses show the most ubiquitous literary device of Hebrew poetry - parallelism. Parallelism has several different styles, but the basic feature is the use of equivalent words, ideas, or phrases to make a pattern. Recognizing parallelism can help understand a difficult text because ideas are often repeated using different sets of words and phrasing. The passage above shows the most typical pattern with pairs of verses saying nearly the same thing: "the word of the LORD" is almost the same as "the breath of His mouth"; "He spoke" is equivalent to "He commanded"; and "The counsel of the LORD" is equivalent to "The plans of His heart." The whole chapter taken together shows all six of these phrases are nearly synonymous conveying much of the same idea as the Shabaka Stone quote shown before.

In Proverbs chapter 8, wisdom is personified in parallel phrases. The “Wisdom of God” closely matches both the spoken ordinances of creation and the Heraclitean Logos. The text emphasizes that the Wisdom of God is prior to all creation in both order and time. Later, this Wisdom will be encapsulated as the phrase “the firstborn over all creation” (eg. Col. 1:15), but one can easily see how the more secular term “ground of all being” fits as well.

The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way.

Before His works of old.

From everlasting I was established,

From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth.

When there were no depths I was brought forth,

When there were no springs abounding with water.

Before the mountains were settled,

Before the hills I was brought forth;

While He had not yet made the earth and the fields,

Nor the first dust of the world.

When He established the heavens, I was there,

When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep,

When He made firm the skies above,

When the springs of the deep became fixed,

When He set for the sea its boundary

So that the water would not transgress His command,

When He marked out the foundations of the earth;

Then I was beside Him, as a master workman;

And I was daily His delight,

Rejoicing always before Him,

Rejoicing in the world, His earth,

And having my delight in the sons of men.

- Proverbs 8:22-31 (NASB)

Word of the Mesopotamian Triad

The Hebrew concept of the Word, equivalent to the Greek Logos, does not come from Greece or Egypt but from Mesopotamia, ultimately through the early Sumerians - the oldest civilization with the oldest known writing and literature. The Sumerian civilization that developed in the barren plains and marshes between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flourished from around 4500 to 2100 BC. Its written language goes back to around 3100 BC, with economic precedents such as pictograph receipts, ledgers, and tokens long before that. The pictographs and tokens became more stylized into wedge-shaped characters pressed into clay with a reed stylus to create a writing system that could represent speech called cuneiform.

The Sumerians were polytheistic during their written history, but by their own account, the lineage of nearly all - if not all - their gods traces back to the God of heaven An - literally ‘heaven’, 'sky' or 'above' (cf. Hebrew El Elyon, "God Most High"). Enlil - "Lord Wind/Breath/Spirit" - is the essence or "branch" (pa-bil2-ga, ETCSL 2.2.1, line 34) of Anšar - "god of all", "whole god", or "the entirety of heaven" - in earlier times, another name for An. An is the "father" (aya) of Enki - "Lord Ground/Place," possibly "Lord Benevolence" (Espak 2006, pg. 32). Together they are the triad (some would say trinity) of gods who created heaven and earth. Their equivalent conception to Logos is called me.

The concept in the Sumerian word me was a divine ordinance or specification of existence uttered or written by the Sumerian triad of creator gods to create, define, and sustain all that is. As a noun or a verb, me is also the common Sumerian word for existence and being - "to be" - comparable to the Hebrew hayah. Unlike our modern words for existence, me is not at all religiously neutral as it always refers back to the speaker, which is ultimately one or a confluence of the gods that decree. The me word concept is found with the very earliest writing; contracted and conjoined to produce all sorts of other logograms, including the suffix pronouns 'I', 'you', and 'we'; and is even one of the easier logograms to write - 𒈨.

The power of me was later given to four other gods created by the triad to make the polytheistic, but centered, "Seven Gods who Decree." With the lesser gods, they met as a divine assembly before dawn (ie. in the East) of each day-age. The chairmanship of the divine assembly was entrusted to Enlil by An, often referred to as the 'king' or 'counselor' of the gods. Highlighting this position of authority, especially in Sumer, Enlil is often called the "Great Mountain" kur-gal (Akkadian: šadû, šadî, cf. Hebrew shaddai). In texts with the Sumerian Emesal dialect, Enlil is called Mullil -- mu-ul-lil2 "Ancient Name/Year Lil." Mu-ul 𒈬𒌌 is a homonym to mul 𒀯, which means "star", thus imparting a clear triple meaning (cf. biblical "Ancient of Days" and "LORD of Hosts").

An and Enlil are so often paired and paralleled together in Sumerian literature that the two are nearly synonymous and often known under the same titles and symbolism, such as lugal-kur-kur-ra "king of the lands/mountains" and lugal kiški - "king of the city of Kish" - symbolically "king of everything" (Wang 2011, pgs. 134-136). To reference one implies the other. After the opening act of creation, when An is said to create, it is implied that he is creating with Enlil. When Enlil creates, it is implied that he is doing so at the behest of An, with Enki and whatever other gods are relevant to the creative act—the divine assembly. While it is tempting to call the triad a trinity, it is more accurate to think of the three gods' relationship in creation as a double bi-unity with Enlil - "Lord Spirit" - as the common one to both pairs.

While this summary might imply Enki is on unequal footing and subservient to the other two, the literature routinely describes Enki as self-reliant, self-destined, and capable of independence. That is, he is only subservient because he chooses to be.

Associations to the Divine Word ME 𒈨

Common Sumerian uses of the me logogram and ME sign with words of similar image and meaning from before Old Babylonian times.

Links and sources: ePSD2, wiktionary.org.

Akk. = Akkadian & Old Babylonian equivalents

( ) = most common independent usage

Being, divine word, rites me 𒈨

Akk. ikribu; mû; parṣu

To Be

me 𒈨
men₃ 𒁺 first use in Ur III (ŋen/du to go; gub to stand; de₆ to carry; tum₂ to bring)
nam 𒉆 (fate, destiny)
a 𒀀 (water, semen)
am₃ 𒀀𒀭 3rd enclitic (šeŋ₃ to rain)

I am, you are [tenseless] me-en 𒈨𒂗

1st and 2nd singular of 𒈨 (me, “to be”)

Numerous, plural me-eš (meš) 𒎌

3rd plural of 𒈨 (me, “to be”)

Summer e₂-me-eš 𒂍𒈨𒌍 Akk. ummu

To speak Akk. atwû; dabābu; qabû

be₂ 𒁉 (kaš "beer")
e 𒂊 (eg₂ levee, dyke)
me 𒈨

Garment Akk. nalbašu

ba₁₃ 𒈨
tug₂ba₁₃ 𒌆𒈨

Purification priest, exorcist Išib 𒈨

Akk. ellu; išippu; pašīšu; ramku; āšipu; šiptu

Any na-me 𒈾𒈨 Akk. mamma

Praise me-teš₂ 𒈨𒌨

Splendor me-lim₄ 𒈨𒉈 Akk. melammu

Sage Akk. apkallu

abgal 𒉣𒈨 "me prince"
abgal₂ 𒉣𒈨𒅤

Tiara, crown men 𒃞 Akk. agû

Tongue; language; blade Akk. lišānu

eme 𒅴
ŋešeme 𒄑𒅴

Wagon Akk. narkabtu [chariot]

mar 𒈥
ŋešmar 𒄑𒈥

Amorite, the West mar-tu 𒈥𒌅

Water-channel, pipe šita₃ 𒋥 Akk. rāṭu

To do, act, perform, make; Genitive case marker ak 𒀝 Akk. epēšu

Battle, combat me₃ 𒀞 Akk. tāhāzu

Big, great, older gal 𒃲 Akk. rabû

Eye; Face, front Igi 𒅆 Akk. īnu, mahrum; pānû

to bear, to give birth, beget Akk. alādu

u₃-tu 𒅇𒌅
tud 𒌅

Conjunction and u₃ 𒅇 Akk. u

Offspring, a newborn u₃-tu-da 𒅇𒌅𒁕

Planking ŋešu₃ 𒄑𒅇

Rare, precious sag₁₀ 𒅆𒂟 Akk. aqru; aqāru

Sleep u₃ 𒅇 Akk. šittu

Spoil bank, causeway, bund u₃ 𒅇 Akk. šipku

Tree, pine u₃-suḫ₅ 𒅇𒆪 Akk. ašūhu

Upper land, North side Igi-nim 𒅆𒉏 Akk. mātu elītu

Ear; wisdom, understanding, wits

Akk. hassu; uznu; ṭēmu

ŋeštug₂ 𒄑𒌆𒉿
ŋeštug 𒉿
ŋeštugtug₂ 𒉿𒌆
ŋeštug₃ 𒄑𒉿𒌆

Broad, to broaden, expand tal₂ 𒉿 Akk. rapāšu

Arrow, pointy thing ti 𒋾

Rib, side ti 𒋾 Akk. ṣilu

Sign, astronomical position Akk. ṣaddu

an-ti-bal 𒀭𒋾𒁄
ti-bal 𒋾𒁄

Type of pot ti-sa₂ 𒋾𒁲

Water vessel ti-lim-da 𒋾𒅆𒁕 Akk. tilimdû

White cedar tree tiʾarum 𒄑𒋾𒀀𒊒𒌝

To live, sustain, to dwell til₃ 𒋾 Akk. ašābu; balāṭu

to be complete, make complete, finish Akk. gamāru; labāru; qatû

til 𒌀 or 𒍗
til₃ 𒋾

(blessed) Life nam-til₃ 𒉆𒋾 Akk. gimilli balaṭu

Be Near to, to approach teŋ₄ 𒋾 Akk. ṭehû

to accept, to receive šu teŋ₄ 𒋗𒋾 Akk. leqû; mahāru

To turn, rotate, turn over, term of office; dig bala 𒁄

Akk. elû; nabalkutu; nakāru; naqû; palû

The God of Wisdom

Enki's role in the divine assembly is that of the chief engineer, foreman, and accountant. He crafts with fresh water and the available materials. For fashioning mankind, this material is clay from the top of the Abzu - the freshwater aquifer considered his home. The Abzu is located everywhere there are springs of water, but particularly in southern Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf. The most sacred place of the Abzu is in areas east of Enki's temple city, Eridu, the southernmost city of Sumer, originally built on the edge of a huge marsh.

Enki is also the firstborn of An and the foremost prince who will have creation as something like an inheritance.

Even though the Sumerians had a polytheistic theology by the time they began writing literature, how the triad goes about creating through me is not what we would expect as the "normal" polytheistic way. The normal assumption is that each god represents an etiology - a cause or explanation of some specific phenomena in the universe. People who study ancient religion can therefore routinely talk about a god as a personification of some function or phenomenon such as Utu/Shamash the sun god, Iškur/Adad the storm god, Bacchus the Greek god of wine (and the effects of wine), or Thoth the Egyptian god of writing and magic. The birth, creation, or evolution of a god creates a mythology that accounts for the function or phenomena. Some of these types of gods eventually take on composite etiologies, often by merging with or replacing other gods in the pantheon. The ultimate example of this is Marduk, the city god of Babylon. An unimportant and barely known minor god in the 3rd millennium BC, who largely replaced Enlil and several other Mesopotamian gods in the 1st millennium BC, in accord with the famous Babylonian epic Enuma Elish.

With the Sumerian theology, all was created by the Sumerian triad through me, including the other gods. The gods were then delegated and destined to govern specific parts of creation tangentially related to their created attributes by Enki (eg. Enki and the World Order). This is not our normal conception of polytheism. In fact, it is redundant - the me and the lesser gods serve the same etiological purpose. This is demonstrated most powerfully in the Sumerian text Enki and Ninmah (ETCSL 1.1.2, lines 48-51), where Enki is praised as the embodiment of the me of destiny:

All the senior gods praised him:

"O lord of wide understanding, who is as wise as you?

Enki, the great lord, who can equal your actions?

Like a corporeal father [aya], you are the one who has the me of deciding destinies, in fact you are the me."

The wisdom of Enki in this text is precisely the ability to create purpose and place in all the futures of gods and men. This wisdom, uniquely possessed and embodied in Enki, was called geštu or geštug, represented by the logogram PI 𒉿, which is predictably constructed from ME 𒈨. When not used as a word for wisdom, it was the common term for "ear" or some form of hearing and understanding. The sound of the word seems to make it a combination of the common word for tree ŋeš 𒄑 and the common word for garment tug₂ 𒌆. Whether it is to denote wisdom, 'ear', or hearing, these other logograms are usually joined to PI - 𒄑𒌆𒉿 - thus emphasizing the tree and garment association. This form of geštug occurs twice in the passage above.

The image a Sumerian might have with geštug wisdom is that 'hearing' or understanding their destiny will cover, clothe, preserve, and protect a person from sun and storm. The implied meaning is that one should stay with and trust the way of Enki. One of the lessons from Enki and Ninmah is that Enki even cares to give a name (ie. beneficial destiny) and provide "daily bread" for those born with deformities and handicaps. Unfortunately, the last few lines of Enki and Ninmah are extremely fragmented, but there is an enticing string at the end that seems to say, "let Umul [ie. the one born sick and helpless] build my house." This seems to uniquely parallel the parable of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22:1-14) and Jesus' healing the sick in Matthew chapters 8 and 9, summarized in Jesus' response to some Pharisees (9:12-13), “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Consequently, this perplexes Ninmah, who is more inclined towards the survival of the fittest and might makes right.

Enki's shading tree of clothing wisdom motif shows up in many places throughout Sumerian literature, such as in the first lines of Enki and the World Order (ETCSL 1.1.3, lines 1-10), where it is described in 3 or possibly 4 different ways:

Grandiloquent lord of heaven and earth, self-reliant,

Father [aya] Enki, engendered by a bull, begotten by a wild bull [ie. An],

cherished by Enlil, the Great Mountain [kur-gal, Akkadian: šadû, šadî], beloved by holy An,

king, meš tree planted in the Abzu, rising over all lands [kur-kur-ta, mountains, hills, nations];

great dragon who stands in Eridug,

whose shadow [ĝissu, "tree black", protective shade] covers heaven [an] and earth, [ki-a, place, ground, earth]

a grove of vines [ĝeštin] extending over the Land [kalam-ma, the familiar land, ie. Sumer],

Enki, lord of plenty of the Anuna gods,

Nu-dim2-mud ["Prince Fashioner of Life-Blood", ie. Enki], mighty one of the E-kur, strong one of heaven and earth!

Your great house is founded in the Abzu, the great mooring-post [dim 𒁴 cf. 𒂔 eden] of heaven and earth.

Comparable symbolism is found in the Hebrew Bible, such as the Tree of Life, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad (Genesis 2-3), and the serpent of bronze on a pole (nehash nehoshet, Numbers 21:8-9; Nehushtan, 2 Kings 18:4).

Lord I Am

Since me is the primary "to be" word in Sumerian, this puts another layer of meaning into statements where Enki is talking about himself - he being the uniquely self-fated one. In Sumerian, the suffix to designate "I am" is sounded as men and is typically written as me-en - "me lord." In Enki and the World Order (ETCSL 1.1.3, lines 62-80), Enki is not bashful to make the case that he is the "me lord" in a series of "I am" statements.

My father, the king of heaven and earth,

made me famous [pa 𒉺 "branch, frond"; also ŋidru "scepter", ugula "overseer, foreman"] in heaven and earth.

My elder brother [pap 𒉽 "elder kin"], the king of all the lands [ie. Enlil],

gathered up all the divine powers and placed them in my hand.

I brought the arts and crafts from the E-kur,

the house of Enlil, to my Abzu in Eridug.

I am the good semen, begotten by a wild bull, I am the first born of An.

I am a great storm [UD "day, daylight"] rising over [e3-a] the great earth, I am the great lord of the Land [ie. Sumer].

I am the principal among all rulers [barag-barag = plural sanctum, dais, or seat], the father [aya] of all the foreign lands.

I am the big brother [šeš-gal 𒋀𒃲] of the gods, I bring prosperity to perfection.

I am the seal-keeper of heaven and earth.

I am the wisdom and understanding of all the foreign lands.

With An the king, on An's dais [barag], I oversee justice.

With Enlil, looking out over the lands, I decree good destinies.

He has placed in my hands the decreeing of fates in the place where the sun rises.

I am cherished by Nintur [𒀭𒎏𒌅, "divine lady/queen of bearing", mother earth goddess].

I am named with a good name by Ninḫursaĝa ["divine lady/queen of the head mountain/hill/mound," mother earth goddess].

I am the leader of the Anuna gods.

I was born [𒅇𒌅] as the firstborn son of holy An.

In 19 lines of cuneiform text, the ME sign was used at least 40 times, including 16 of them as "I am" and 7 on significant words (in bold above). After the lesser gods affirm his speech, he gives another starting with line 88, where he adds a few more:

I am the lord, [en-me-en]; I am one whose word is reliable [ie. true, unquestioned, righteous]; I am one who excels in [e3-a , goes forth, emerges, rears] everything.

And lines 100-101:

The lords pay heed …… to me.

I am Enki! [den-ki-me-en, "I am (god) lord earth" or "(god) lord earth me lord"]

And lines 113-118:

Niĝir-sig, the captain of my barge,

holds the golden sceptre for me.

I am Enki! He is in command of my boat 'Stag of the Abzu'. [possibly a constellation]

I am the lord! [en-me-en] I will travel!

I am Enki! I will go forth into my Land!

I, the lord who determines the fates, ……,

The only other Sumerian gods approaching this combination of authority and density of "I am" statements are the warden of the purgatory-like underworld, Nungal "Great Princess" (ETCSL 4.28.1), the closely related healing goddess Ninisina (ETCSL 4.22.1), the goddess of sex and jealousy Inana (Akk. Ishtar) (ETCSL 4.07.6), and the many sections where the usurping god Ninurta is declaring his greatness.

Ninurta specifically claims the destiny of Enki in Ninurta's return to Nibru ETCSL 1.6.1 and is the only other Sumerian god to make the broad claim "I am the lord" (en-me-en, cf. Exodus 3:14). First found in literature representing the Akkadian Empire of Sargon the Great, Rimush, Munishtushu, and Naram-Sin in the 3rd millennium BC, Ninurta (biblical Nimrod) attests to the destiny of Enki when claiming himself as equal. Lines 165-167:

I am the warrior, destined with Enki to be suited for the fearsome divine powers [me ḫuš 𒈨𒍽 "reddish me"].

Let my kingship be manifest unto the ends of heaven and earth.

I am most able among the gods -- let me be imbued with great awesomeness."

In Sumerian literature, Ninurta tries to capture Enki's tablets of destiny, inscribed with me, ultimately intending to replace Enki. In what may well be the resolution of the "Tower of Babel" story (Genesis 11), Ninurta is finally put in his place by Enki, Ninurta and The Turtle, ETCSL 1.6.3 lines 36-54 (alternative Kramer 1984).

Against Ninurta, Enki fashioned a turtle from the clay of the abzu.

Against him he stationed the turtle at an opening, at the gate of the abzu.

Enki talked to him near the place of the ambush and brought him to the place where the turtle was.

The turtle was able to grab Ninurta's tendon from behind [Achilles tendon?].

The hero Ninurta managed to turn back its feet.

Enki, as if perplexed, said, "What is this!"

He had the turtle scrape the ground with its claws, had it dig an evil pit.

The hero Ninurta fell into it with the turtle.

The hero did not know how to get out from …….

The turtle kept on gnawing his feet with its claws (?).

'Babel' quite literally means the "gate of god". This could reference a variety of places besides what we today recognize as the ancient city of Babylon, such as the temple and/or ziggurat at Eridu or the area intended for a ziggurat at the long-lost, famously failed city of Akkad/Agade (The cursing of Agade, ETCSL 2.1.5). The turtle digging "an evil pit" may reference the same place as the pit of Babylon in the Weidner Chronicle (ABC 19, 49'-51' and ABC 20 A.18-20) or the foundation excavation for the failed ziggurat at the failed city of Akkad. It is even possible that the Akkad/Ninurta story is a sequel to the original Tower of Babel story, much as Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the nether world is a sequel to Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld and the Dumuzi/Tammuz story, which is likely the Sumerian resolution of the Adam and Eve story.

Narrative and mythological compositions - etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk

The Ninurta and the Turtle story continues through Enki's final response - "Where has your strength fled? Where is your heroism? In the great mountains you caused destruction, but how will you get out now?" - but then the text takes an interesting turn before the tablet goes to a lost ending. Enki's spouse, the mother earth goddess Ninhursag, under the name Ninmena(ke) 𒀭𒎏𒃞𒈾 "Lady of the crown," has the expectation that Ninurta would be received by Enki and anointed king of the gods, not merely deemed a hero. Theologically, this break from empire meant that Mesopotamia and its satellites were no longer speaking with one voice - from the king - and no longer worshiping in one language, Sumerian. This may represent the point of no return away from a triad-centered theistic view and toward a more chaotic and idolatrous polytheism:

You my plant-eater Enki, who shall I send to you?

Men will shake their heads in fear ……. Who shall I send to you?

That name is not Enki [ie. Lord of place/beneficence]. That name is Ugugu-that-does-not-pour [pun on plant-eater].

You who are death which has no mercy, who shall I send to you?

Already the intimate creator of life and persistently attested lord of lords, in a future from Sumer, Enki or his anointed representative is destined to rise to the kingship of heaven and earth, as seen in most of the texts quoted above. This particularly potent divine nature is echoed in other Sumerian names, epithets, and articles of Enki:

Nudimmud = "Prince Creator of Life-Blood"
The Great Prince
begotten, beloved, and firstborn of An
Intrepid king
King of the abzu (ie. "sea/window to know, learn, experience", Enki's underground abode)
lord of prosperity and wisdom
lord of heaven and earth
inim Enlil-la = "word/speech/mouth of Enlil" (ie. "word of Lord Spirit/wind/breath")
Enlil-banda = Junior Enlil
den-TI = "Lord of Life", "Hero", "The Way", and/or "The Near Lord"
e₂-me-zid-da = "House of the True Me's" - a temple of Enki.
u6-nir-gal-an-ki-ni2-ḫuš-ri-a-bi = "Great-Ziggurat-of-Heaven-and-Earth-Covered-with-Terrible-Awesomeness" - ziggurat in Enki's city Eridu.

While the third-millennium me speaking Enki may in some tellings precisely match Heraclitus' Logos, he is not as wide as the broadest conception of the Greek Logos. However, the Sumerian Triad in unity is wider than any conception of the Greek Logos. The Sumerian literature points back to a time before the great flood - Enlil's flood (c. 3000 BC) - when the Triad was clearly a trinity and back even further to a time when no other gods but this trinity could decree me. That is, we have a polytheistic culture pointing back to a time when God was definitively One - monotheism.

Since the me spoken by the Triad is sufficient, who needs the gods? If the lesser gods had any power at all, it was destined power - destined by Enlil and Enki -- which means it was granted power. Beyond mundane granted powers, the only real power the lesser gods had was through soft influence with the gods that decree -- particularly influence with Enlil and Enki -- access to An being primarily through Enlil.

One could eliminate all the lesser gods and still have a finely functioning theology. The triad would be a trinity, and an otherwise proto-Christian Abrahamic theology would be produced in all essentials. This is about what happened. The head patriarch of the Jewish people, Abraham, is represented in the Bible as coming from a place and time where he would have been brought up with the super-idolatrous Old Babylonian (c.1900 BC to c. 1600 BC) version of the Sumerian religious culture. This was likely intermixed somewhat with northern religious culture, as Abraham likely originates from Urkesh or Urfa on the northern edge of Mesopotamia (see Ur of the Chaldees). The administration of Abraham denied the efficacy and legitimacy of idols, which denied the station and even existence of the lesser gods.

The writer/translator(s) of the first 3 chapters of Genesis - the two visions of creation - have carefully told the Sumerian stories so only the Sumerian Triad is visible - at least to those unfamiliar with Sumerian religion. Although one might hypothesize lesser gods by looking closely at what is named in the text, the other gods are superfluous as gods and can be taken as no more than personifications. That is to say, because of the me, they are theologically optional as gods. The spoken word acting on and with the earth is the power in biblical creation -- not the angels or any other entity outside of the Godhead (ie. Elohim).

With this, it can be seen that the early Sumerian worship of the lesser gods - often called the anunna(ki) 𒀭𒀀𒉣𒈾 "princes/sons of An/god (on earth)" - is not fundamentally different than the angel and saint veneration found within Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Just like with those faiths at times, veneration had gotten out of hand, turning into worship and idolatry, and thus, extensive polytheism.

Enki outside of Sumer

The embodiment of me, Enki was not merely a Sumerian god. He was known across Mesopotamia, the Levant, and beyond - possibly even in the Indus Valley Civilisation (aka. Meluḫa, Enki and The World Order lines 124, 128, 219) - as some variation of Ea (e2-a 𒂍𒀀). As a Sumerian logogram, this most directly means "water house/temple." The logogram 𒀀 is the common Sumerian symbol for water and semen - "living water." The Semitic Ea essentially has the same meaning as the abode of Enki - the abzu ("sea/window to know, learn, experience"). The abzu is also the name for some ancient temples' holy water containers.

The fact that so many different Abzu temples are listed shows that during the period when the first longer written inscriptions appeared [Early Dynastic Period c. 2900-2300 BC], the cult of Enki must have been spread over the whole region of Mesopotamia.

- Espak 2010, pg. 18

From the Old Akkadian time onwards (c. 2300 BC), the Sumerian combination e2-a 𒂍𒀀 was the common word for "village" eduru (cf. Hebrew chavvah "Eve/encampment/village"). There has been speculation that e2-a 𒂍𒀀 has been syllabically shortened from something like "Lord Water" (en-a 𒂗𒀀) in much the same way as Enlil was shortened to Ellil in the Akkadian language (Espak 2006, pg. ).

Ea also sounds like aya 𒀀𒀀, one of the Sumerian words for father, most used in the literature when concerning the gods. Even though the 𒀀 logogram is the typical symbol for "semen," aya is often used in hierarchical rather than genetic ways. Recall from Enki and The World Order line 70, that Enki is regarded as "the father [aya] of all the foreign lands." Even the usurping Ninurta, supposedly born of Enlil, calls Enki "father" in A Hymn to Ninurta (Ninurta C), line 82.

It's possible Ea is also associated with the apparent homonym e3-a 𒌓𒁺𒀀, which means to "go forth", "go into" or "sent", such as used in lines 69, 76, and 88 of Enki and the World Order quoted above. As related in these texts and others, Enki/Ea is the one who is "rising over [e3-a]" to be the ruler of rulers and father (aya 𒀀𒀀) of the nations (lines 70-71). He was already the most extensively dispersed god at the time Sumerians began writing literature.

Sumerian Enki and Semitic Ea can not be seen as denoting a divine concept from a certain exclusive area or linguistic group. Rather they are concepts in continuous development and change and the main core of their nature is represented in some way or another in every religion of the wider Near East and bordering regions.

- Espak 2006, pg. 38

There are several similar-sounding variations of this name such as Hayah and Ia that all call attention to freshwater - living water - that springs from the ground aquifer (ie. the Abzu). What is thought of as the strongest single etymology of Ea is a Semitic origin from the root hyy "to live" rather than a direct Sumerian influence (Espak 2006 pgs. 32-36). Fittingly, hyy is related to an adjective for "living water", spring-fed, or running water (Kramer & Maier 1989, pg. 145). While the Semitic origin is considered a key feature, I find it impossible to believe the Semitic hyy is completely independent of the Sumerian aya for "father."

The giver of fresh water and bringing of life that water makes possible is the other great attribute of Enki/Ea, so much so that in Sumerian the cuneiform symbol for water and semen 𒀀 was often used to represent the me concept as 𒀀 and 𒀀𒀭. In Akkadian, it was the other way around, "water" was often denoted with the cuneiform sign called memû, which is the Akkadian for ME, 𒈨. In the Proto-Sinaitic script that evolved with Egyptian and Asiatic groups during the second millennium into the Phoenician and Hebrew alphabet, the pictograph of the letter Mem that turned into the Phoenician (and Old Hebrew) 𐤌 represents water. It can be no coincidence that the Mem also stands for the number 40 (Sumerian: nimin 𒐏 Akk. erbā) - Enki's number that is occasionally used as his name.

The Letter Mem - hebrew4christians.com

The Hebrew "to be" verb hayah, its derivatives, and associations contain all the meanings from the etymologies above. The most common name for God in the Old Testament, explicitly taken from hayah (Exodus 3:14), is Yahweh - usually translated as "LORD" in English. Along with "I Am that I Am", this name embodies all of these etymologies as well.

Sumerian Ḫaia

Enki/Ea was so extensively known throughout the Near East for so long a time that when a version of him called Haya or Ḫaia 𒀭𒄩𒉌 returned to southern Mesopotamia, he was treated as a different god. The difficulty for the Sumerians in seeing him as Enki seemed to be reconciling the focus on the minutiae of creation with the more personal and storied view of Enki the creator in southern Mesopotamia. Therefore, Ḫaia is a scribal god, a little closer to the later depersonalized Greek Logos than the Sumerian Enki.

Ḫaia was the spouse of the goddess of writing, Nisaba (𒀭𒊺𒉀 "grain god"), during a time when there was still an obsession to pair up the gods. Worship of most of the goddesses declined after this period. He had (was given?) a genetic role in being the father of Ninlil, the spouse of Enlil, who, along with Nisaba, is known from the earliest written documents in the 4th millennium, before Enlil's flood.

The name Ninlil derives from her spousal relationship with Enlil. Her "maiden" name is Sud or Bau, a goddess that, by Sumerian theology, goes back to an early time after mankind was destined, but before mankind was born. In contradiction, Bau is mentioned as the firstborn (dumu-saĝ "head child") daughter of An (ETCSL 2.1.7 Line 557) and seems to carry an alternative history with a son of Enlil as her husband. The stories of the beginning of the relationship between Enlil and Ninlil are of lust and rape which makes the saucy Song of Solomon in the Bible look rather tame, perhaps justifying its inclusion in the biblical canon.

While attested earlier outside of Mesopotamia, such as Ebla in the Levant (Archi 2010), Ḫaia does not show up by that name in Sumerian documents until the final age of Sumer - the Ur III period in the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BC.

As attested in A hymn to Ḫaia for Rīm-Sîn (Rīm-Sîn B) - ETCSL 2.6.9.2 (alternative translation, Kramer 1977) from around 1800 BC, Ḫaia is a god who records destinies, accounts for everything, steers the Triad, and the rest of the divine counsel. Just the first 8 lines establish him as having all the basic qualities of Enki except pedigree (which is unknown) as compared to Enki and the World Order shown above. A particular focus of his role is to fill in all the gaps of leadership that might be imagined among An, Enlil, and Enki.

Lord, perfect in august wisdom [ŋeštug₂ 𒄑𒌆𒉿] and recognized for his mighty counsel,

Ḫaia, who holds the great tablets [or "big, big tablet"], who enriches the deep wisdom! [ŋeštug₂ ŋeštug₂]

Accountant of Ḫal-an-kug, having the final overview of the arts of Nisaba's house of wisdom [e2- ŋeštug₂];

palace archivist of heaven and earth, who keeps count of every single assignment,

who holds a holy reed-stylus and covers the great tablets of destiny with writing!

Wise one [gal-an-zu], who prompts holy An with words [inim ŋeštug₂] and attention at the appropriate times;

seal-holder of Father Enlil! He who brings forth the holy objects from the treasure-house of E-kur;

ornament of the abzu shrine, wearing his hair loose for Lord Nudimmud! [ie. able to be informal in the presence of Enki]

Ḫaia doesn't just record destinies given by Enki. He has some say in the destinies he writes, which is found to be the main premise of the hymn. Lines 36-42:

38. In the abzu shrine, Enki has bestowed his incantations of life on you,

36. great breed-bull, who are recognised for your right understanding, who constantly care for the gods,

37. Ḫaia, you who operate effectively the assigning of divine powers [me], who mark out the cult places.

You appoint the high priest for the ĝipar and install him there as its caretaker.

You make the shepherd of the Land [ie. Sumer] hold in his hands the august sceptre until distant days.

Ḫaia, you are the god of the Land [ie. Sumer] who gives ear to the prayers of all the people.

You make the king hold the widespread people in his hands for the great gods.

Although it is a difficult translation, Ḫaia appears to serve as a substitute when Enki is out. It is unclear whether this is a general substitute when Enki and/or his idol are traveling, or if this will happen during a particular future event. Lines 43-47:

When Father Enki comes forth from the abzu,

he assigns (?) its greatness to you, Ḫaia.

You cause the people who are in its midst to lift their necks towards heaven;

you make its population pass their days in rejoicing.

You keep all its people forever contented.

- ETCSL 2.6.9.2

When father Enki came forth out of the Abzu,

He meted out to you its (the Land's) great destiny,

You exalt to heaven the people who are in its midst,

You make its makind spend (their) days in rejoicing,

You make all its people happy of heart unto eternity,

- Kramer 1977, pg 46

Ḫaia's seamless role among the Triad is shown in this last section. He is almost indistinguishable from Enki. There appears to be a strong thrust to relate nam-til₃ 𒉆𒋾 "blessed life" with Ḫaia, which accords with the strongest etymology of his name. Lines 49-57:

Leader, leader [ie. "foremost, foremost" or "Supreme"] of the gods, complete [or "render full"] the great fates of the people.

Look favourably upon the king with your gracious gaze that is full of life [nam-til₃].

Duly grant a joyous reign of long days to prince Rīm-Sîn,

marking its years on the tablet of life [nam-til₃-la], forever unalterable.

May An and Enlil love the shepherd Rīm-Sîn in the office of high priest.

The singers will make your praise resound sweetly in their mouths;

Ḫaia, the singers will make your praise resound sweetly in their mouths.

Lord of heaven and earth, king of the abzu, its praise is august.

Father Enki, king of the abzu, your praise is sweet.

The ending antiphon seems to be the strongest evidence for the etymology of Ḫaia being "to live." But alas, the translation of the bold in line 59 is difficult:

Ḫaia, god of the Land, who loves the words "Give me life!", extend your broad arms round prince Rīm-Sîn.

- ETCSL 2.6.9.2

Haia, god of the land, who loves (the prayer) "Let me live," may you be one who spreads a wide hand over the prince Rim-Sin.

- Kramer 1977, pg 47

While it is usually thought that Ḫaia would be a product of the West such as from Ebla or the Amorites, Rīm-Sîn's family comes from Elam to the East - another thin bit of evidence relating to the wide distribution of Enki as Ea/Haya/Ḫaia.

Great Mountain and the Land

Enlil is often called the "Great Mountain" kur-gal. This is not a proper name, but a title or epithet - an outstanding quality or characteristic that can be used like a name. This epithet was frequently used during the Neo-Sumerian Ur III period (c. 2100 BC) - the last gasp of Sumer as a unified polity and Sumerian as a living language. There is some speculative evidence however that the equivalent Akkadian ŚA.DÚ ì-li ra-bí-um - "the great mountain of the gods" - might have been in regular use outside of Sumer before Sargon the Great (c. 2300 BC). ŚA.DÚ is a syllabic spelling of the Akkadian word for mountain šadû(m), (plural acc. and gen., šadî). (Wang 2011, pgs. 198-201)

The Hebrew shaddai is a cognate of šadû(m) prominently used in the title/name "God Almighty" El Shaddai. That the word is closely associated with destruction and desolation is due to Enlil's executive role in the several literal and metaphorical floods of destruction of Sumer and Akkad. There may also be an etymologically independent word that is punned with šadû, highlighting this destruction. The Hebrew word for female breast, shad, is also a cognate of šadû(m). No surprise there. The most impressive mountains in Wyoming were called the Grand Tetons by French explorers and trappers.

Enki and the World Order ETCSL 1.1.3 lines 188-209:

188. The intrepid king, Father [aya] Enki …… in the Land [kalam-ma].

190. Prosperity was made to burgeon in heaven and on earth [an ki-a]

189. for the great prince who travels [e3-a ] in the Land [kalam-ma].

191. Enki decreed its fate:

"Sumer [ki-en-gi, "place of the noble lords"], great mountain [kur gal], land [ma-da] of heaven and earth [an ki],

trailing glory, bestowing powers [me] on the people from sunrise to sunset:

your powers [me] are superior powers [me], untouchable,

and your heart is complex and inscrutable.

Like heaven [an-gin7] itself, your just matrix [ki], in which gods too can be born, is beyond reach.

Giving birth to kings who put on the good diadem,

giving birth to lords who wear the crown on their heads

-- your lord, the honoured lord [ie. Enki], sits with An the king on An's dais.

200. Your king, the Great Mountain [kur gal], Father Enlil,

the father of all the lands [kur-kur-ra], has blocked you impenetrably (?) like a cedar tree. [ie. protected from outsiders]

The Anuna, the great gods,

have taken up dwellings [ki-ur3 , foundations] in your midst,

and consume their food in your giguna shrines among the unique and exceptional trees.

Household Sumer, may your sheepfolds be built

and your cattle multiply,

may your giguna touch the skies.

May your good temples reach up to heaven [an-še3].

May the Anuna determine the destinies in your midst."

To those who know their Bible well, every sentence and reference to the Sumerians above has correlation or causation bearing on the biblical text. Even if one were to haggle with things as represented above, the overall culture is filled with elucidating biblical connections. Most of the problematic older passages of the Old Testament are rather easily brought to light after consulting Sumerian literature and culture. This is so much so that the Documentary Hypothesis is made superfluous.

In the first chapter of the AGB on Genesis, Asimov often appropriately interweaves Sumerian history with the biblical text, always making at least reasonable speculations. He references the Sumerians 80 times in the AGB, much more so than the average 20th-century commentator.

However, he mentions each of the Sumerian triad of gods independently and only in passing. Even though most of the names of God in the Bible can be traced back to a Sumerian origin and usage, he does not correlate the creation process of speaking or writing me to the biblical God. Consequently, all of Asimov's Old Testament commentary is free from the philosophically elegant Logos, thereby treating the Jewish God as just one god among many.

Levantian Logos

The usual personification of the Logos is the Angel of the LORD (ie. Yahweh), as distinct from other angels (ie. messengers). He often shows up in visions receiving reports, planning, or in command of workers. Zechariah chapters 1 and 2 for instance has all of these elements.

The phrase announcing prophecy is an example of God’s command, “The word of the LORD came to . . .”, where ‘the word’ is typically a translation of dabar, which, when translated into Greek, naturally becomes logos.

LORD of Hosts

Targums

MEMRA (= "Ma'amar" or "Dibbur," "Logos") by Kaufmann Kohler - jewishencyclopedia.com

The Targums and the Memra/Word of the Lord by Stone Crier - youtube.com

Other Hebrew writings not in the canon of the Bible - known as the apocrypha - also emphasize the Logos with the Wisdom of God such as the Wisdom of Solomon written around 100 BC:

O God of my fathers and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things by thy word, and by thy wisdom hast formed man, to have dominion over the creatures thou hast made, and rule the world in holiness and righteousness, and pronounce judgment in uprightness of soul, give me the wisdom that sits by thy throne, and do not reject me from among thy servants.

- 9:1-4 RSV

Also, the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach written around 175-164 BC:

Wisdom was created before all things, and prudent understanding from eternity. The root of wisdom -- to whom has it been revealed? Her clever devices -- who knows them? There is One who is wise, greatly to be feared, sitting upon his throne. The Lord himself created wisdom; he saw her and apportioned her, he poured her out upon all his works. She dwells with all flesh according to his gift, and he supplied her to those who love him.

- 1:4-8 RSV

Jesus and the Wisdom Figure of Proverbs 8 (2013) by Michael Heiser - thedivinecouncil.com

A contemporary of Jesus, the Alexandrian Jew Philo attempted to mix in the Greek philosophers:

Philo's conception of the Logos, therefore, is the sum-total and free exercise of the divine energies; so that God, so far as he reveals himself, is called Logos; while the Logos, so far as he reveals God, is called God. - Vincent 1887, pp. 25-33

For those who lack all this background of the Logos outside of Greek thought, it seems fairly radical when the New Testament declares Jesus the Christ (ie. the Anointed) as the Logos incarnate, especially the first chapter of St. John’s Gospel.

In [the] beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and God was the Logos.

All things through him became, and without him became not one thing which has become.

In him life was, and the life was the light of men; and the light in the darkness shines, and the darkness it not overtook.

- word-for-word translation after Marshall, 1980

Now with the extensive background of the Word, the only questionable element in the entire first chapter of John is the assertion that Jesus the man in particular is the Logos.

Logos - The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon - biblestudytools.com

>>Because the Logos became incarnate and fulfilled prophecy, the most commonly used analogies and terms changed. What was once Yahweh, His Word, and His Breath, and then the LORD of Hosts, the Angel of the LORD, and Spirit in the Old Testament, was now consistently addressed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as it had been during the era of the Sumerians. This became apparent with Jesus’ most authoritative early convert - John the Baptist.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

- NIV Matthew 3:13-17

When not speaking in parables, Jesus usually let his actions speak, as in the calming of the seas found in Matthew, Mark and Luke.

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

- NIV Mark 4:35-41

Consequently, the Logos was the primary concept forming the synthesis of Greek and Early Christian thought and was often found in the writings of the church fathers. Nearly every father called an apologist demonstrated a clear conception of the Logos.

The Logos, steers men and ever preserves them in the right way. Man has the power of calculation, but there is also the divine Logos. Human reason is sprung from the divine Logos, which furnishes to each man the passageway of both life and nourishment. - Clement of Alexandria (Wheelwright 1959, pg. 19)

We have been taught that Christ is the first-born of God, and we have declared above that He is the Word (ie. Logos) of whom every race of men were partakers; and those who lived reasonably are Christians, even though they have been thought atheists; as, among the Greeks, Socrates and Heraclitus, and men like them; and among the barbarians, Abraham, and Ananias, and Azarias, and Misael, and Elias, and many others whose actions and names we now decline to recount, because we know it would be tedious. So that even they who lived before Christ, and lived without reason, were wicked and hostile to Christ, and slew those who lived reasonably. - Justin Martyr (1 Apology, Ch. 46)

The orthodox concept of the Trinity was deeply involved with this concept of Logos. The Trinity was set forth to fix within the church the relationship of Jesus the man as the Logos incarnate with God beyond the Logos (ie. the Father and Spirit).

The chief monument of the fourth-century consideration of Jesus as Logos was the dogma of the Holy Trinity, as enshrined in the Nicene Creed. Through most of Christian history, the doctrine of the Trinity has been the unquestioned - and unquestionable - touchstone of truly orthodox faith and teaching. - Jaroslav Pelikan (1987, 58)

In the history of ideas, the Logos is not news to Asimov. He does an admirable job explaining the Logos in the section called ‘The Word’ when covering the New Testament book of John (AGB pgs. 960 to 965). He even recognizes the Logos as the foundational presupposition of science. It would be hard then to call Asimov a naïve atheist. However, in his zeal to describe the Logos as a random development of religion (a common issue in the AGB), he insulated himself from what could have compelled him towards theism.

This is made clear in a debate billed as The Great Debate: Does God Exist? (audio). The Reformed apologist Greg Bahnsen - a protégé of the theologian Cornelius Van Til, one of the last of the Old Princeton professors - presses the importance of the Logos home debating the naïve atheist Gordon Stein. Bahnsen’s argument is interesting as it conceptually contains the Logos without ever directly referencing it. Most debates of this nature are fruitless, with people talking past each other, using debating tricks, or merely scoring points with their side of the audience. In this case, Bahnsen dominates on the point by arguing that the presuppositions of knowledge do not fit within an atheistic worldview. He asserts they only fit within the worldview of Christian theism. Afterward, he had a hard time booking debates with atheists!

The Great Debate: Does God Exist? - bellevuechristian.org archived (Audio - youtube.com)

All along Bahnsen showed that there is no “neutral rationality” to which one can appeal. This is one of the great fallacies posited by ‘secularism’. Everybody comes to the table with prejudices. Nobody is neutral. The better of us admit as much and make efforts to mitigate those prejudices - this is a form of epistemic humility. The prejudice that all of us must have - whether we want to acknowledge it or not - is that the universe is orderly. The Christian God accounts for this order. Atheism in the most hand-waving way cannot.

However, Bahnsen’s assertion for Christianity purely from worldview is a bit too bold. One cannot get all the way to Christianity without immersing in the actual products of knowledge and revelation. The more recent debates featuring the mathematician John Lennox arguing more explicitly for the Logos are as convincing without as much over-assertion.

John Lennox addresses his debate with Richard Dawkins - Grasping the Nettle 2018 - youtube.com

Significance & Memory

Night falls on all of our decisions

All our plans and all ambitions

Endless darkness comes to define us

Comes to take us and remind us

Find our way from this side of thinking

Unafraid and under your wing

Night falls on us either way

- Daybreaks, Jack Johnson

Mortality is eventually 100%. We will all die. The species will eventually go extinct - quickening the day as we further take control of our own destiny. Suffering will be involved all along the way - more often than not at our own hand. Consequently, everyone has asked, will continue to ask, and must practically answer some variation of the question, “Is there permanent significance?” Or is life…

...but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

- Shakespeare’s Macbeth

If the Logos, or reality beyond the Logos, intends to communicate, the answer to significance is a quite rational ‘yes’, for two reasons. First, the cosmic God cares enough to communicate with an otherwise insignificant human. Our closest human analogy to this relationship is of the greatest king acknowledging the concerns of his lowliest subject, thereby imbuing that subject with significance.

Second, any exchange of information requires some analogue to memory. Communication from an infinite eternal God implies infinite eternal memory. God communicating to an individual confirms a (hopefully positive) place in God’s memory for that individual. Eternal memory is one of the great analogies to eternal life (ie. heaven), most explicit today in the theology and practice of the Eastern Orthodox Church which ends every funeral with a chant of "Memory Eternal." At the very minimum, a communicating God will eternally "recall" life with extreme, but perfect prejudice. Even if God wished to forget about the evil and the bland, they are recalled with prejudice wherever their stories intersect the saints. Death then is only evil to the evil and the bland.

Notice that the mere fact of God’s communication provides us with significance. The content or effect of that communication further spells out the concern and character of God. If mankind would submit to a simple existence, this theology would be enough. However, mankind long ago embarked on the project of knowledge and ideals we call civilization - creating evil to be experienced in opposition to wisdom and complicating everything. Revelation became necessary to steer this haughty unstable species away from its own destruction and back toward life. Ultimately, that is the purpose of the Bible - a cohesive collection of texts highlighting God’s communication with a people set apart - holy, chosen - to be an example and idiom of redemption for the rest of mankind.

Some Heaven Texts

Memory Analogue

Exodus 32:30-35 - “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.”

Psalm 25:6-7 - “...remember me”

Psalm 69:22-28 - “May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous.”

Psalm 112:6 - “they will be remembered forever.”

Psalm 136 - “For His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

Nehemiah 13:14, 22 - "remember me for this"

Nehemiah 13:29-31 - “Remember me with favor, my God.”

Job 14:13-17 - “If only you would set me a time and then remember me!”

_ _ _

Revelations 16:19 - "God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath."

Both

1 Samuel 2:6-9 - “He brings down to Sheol and raises up… He keeps the feet of His godly ones, / But the wicked ones are silenced in darkness”

Psalm 49:5-15 - “But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me.”

Job 19:23-27 - “Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I will see God.”

Isaiah 65:17-25 - “...new heavens and a new earth, the former things will not be remembered…”

Isaiah 66 - “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the Lord, “so will your name and descendants endure.”

_ _ _

Matthew 7:21-23 - ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Matthew 18:10 - "their angels do always behold the face of my Father in heaven."

Matthew 25:14-30 - “whoever has will be given more”

Matthew 25:31-46 - righteous to eternal life.

Luke 10:17-20 - “rejoice that your names are written in heaven”

Revelation 20:11-15 - "great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life."

Place Analogue

Psalm 86:11-13 - “You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.”

_ _ _

Matthew 6:19-21 - "treasures in heaven"

Matthew 25:1-13 - "the wedding banquet"

Mark 9:35-37, 42-48 - “it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into gehenna”

Luke 12:33-34 - "treasure in heaven"

Luke 13:29-33 - "places at the feast"

Luke 16:19-31 - “Now the poor man.. was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom“

John 14:2-4 - "My Father's house has many rooms"

2 Corinthians 5 - "we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven"

Philippians 3:14, 20-21 - "...citizenship is in heaven..."

Hebrews 11:10-16 - "country of their own"

Hebrews 13:14 - "the city that is to come."

Revelation 5:9-13 - "...every creature in heaven..."

Revelation 7:13-17 - "before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple"

Revelation 21 - "new heaven and a new earth...new Jerusalem"

Revelation 22:1-5 - "river of the water of life...flowing...down the middle of the great street of the city."

Although I have been somewhat careful with my words about the Word to highlight its place within orthodox (and Orthodox) Christianity, I needn’t be. Anyone who asks of the ineffable and receives an answer beyond that required by law has a stark and durable religion. Because this rational mysticism rhymes so well with the Bible, the tradition of Christianity coming down from the Church Fathers, through the Nicene-Constantinople Creed, and my own experience, I do not feel required to defend every nook and cranny of the biblical text. Nor do I need to approach it with overly rigid principles such as inerrancy or literalism. If someone could convince me that the Bible was a fraud - as Asimov and his cadre of modern scholars seem to want to do - I would have to find religion just like the Christian one to take its place. This experience of God affords a measure of critical distance that some others do not have. I can ask questions, support what is good, constructively criticize what seems in error, and occasionally be wrong without a strong concern for upholding my faith. My faith is challenged elsewhere.

The Memory of Schrödinger's Cat

Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.

- Erwin Schrödinger

There is one more potential fundamental presupposition to deal with borne in Quantum Mechanics. It all depends on whether one believes that quantum superposition, quantum entanglement, and "collapse of the wave function" are features or failures of Physics...

Responsible Philosophy

“Induction is the glory of science and the scandal of philosophy.” - C. D. Broad

Then again, Asimov may recognize the validity of mystical evidence. He may have the Cultist in Nightfall saying “I know!” because the Cultist understands that the Scientists are far too prejudiced to respond favorably to any answer he gives....

Responsible Reading

“Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.” - George Orwell

One can certainly be a humanist of an atheistic stripe, but not as a result of a consistent unbroken line of reasoning or scientific discovery. Where then does the ‘secular’ get credibility? The only sound claim to reason is the ignorance, irrationality, and anti-intellectualism of its adversaries....

Responsible Knowledge

"All models are wrong... some models are useful." - George E.P. Box

Many religions have never been strongly coupled to reality. The orthodox and traditional Abrahamic Faiths - Judaism, Islam, and Christianity - most definitely are. They are grounded in the creator God revealed in history through and to mankind. This means there should be millions of points of contact with history and science...

Responsible Time

“Where does discontent start? You are warm enough, but you shiver. You are fed, yet hunger gnaws you. You have been loved, but your yearning wanders in new fields. And to prod all these there's time, the bastard Time” - John Steinbeck

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