More than 7,000 years ago, Sumerian civilization thrived across Mesopotamia. An agricultural system had been developed to sustain life continuously for the first time in human history, and its inhabitants created an elaborate pantheon of gods to explain natural wonders and the phenomenon of death..
One of their most revered deities, who also appears as 'Ea' in Babylon and Akkad, was 'Enki'. Beyond ancient Mesopotamia, the legends surrounding Enki have resonated through the biblical era (both Old and New Testaments) and still impact our world today. While few know his name, Enki is an inescapable part of the 21st century.
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Projecting his daunting reputation from the Persian Gulf, Enki, often translated as 'Lord of the Earth', had a penchant for beer and women - female relatives in particular. Despite lapses into being a rakish sot, he managed to be regarded as the god of intelligence, crafts and creation as well. As was the case with most pre-Judaic deities, the gods of ancient Egypt, Greece and Sumer usually possessed both supernatural and human (flawed) characteristics.
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Ultimately, Enki became something of a savior by defeating the nefarious designs of his wicked half-brother Enlil. In a word, Enlil wanted to end the human experiment and unleashed a series of natural disasters (i.e. famine, drought etc.) upon Mesopotamia. Enki responded by educating his people on using effective countermeasures (i.e. irrigation to beat drought) to survive Enlil's onslaught.
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When Enlil discovered that his macabre plans failed to materialize, he called a meeting of the gods (of which he was the king) and decided to flood the world out of existence. When Enki got word of his half-brother's latest machination, he is said to have told a man named Atrahasis to build a vessel large enough to hold out through a deluge. Sound familiar?
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Hence, the notions of a god 'saving' humanity from a dark figure and the world-ending, catastrophic flood depicted in the legends of Enki seem to comprise the roots of later Judeo-Christian history and theological accounts.
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Beyond these stories, it is interesting to note that Enki was often simply referred to as '40', and his number was considered sacred within Sumerian tradition. As '40' appears more often in the Christian Bible than any other number (i.e. Noah's flood lasted for 'forty days and forty nights', Jesus spent forty days fasting in the desert, Forty days passed between Jesus' resurrection and ascension etc.), the Sumerian '40' of Enki still lives on at least two widely practiced religions today.
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Hopefully, scholars will be able to make further progress in linking the intellectual and theological currents of Sumer and Ancient Egypt to Judaism and Christianity. In the meantime, students of history, religion and archaeology should continue to delve into the world of the first civilization - Sumer - where '40' never looked so good.
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(Pictograph: Enki - with the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers coming out of his shoulders respectively. Enki was also known as the 'God of Replenishment')
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J Roquen