RayA:
Brigham didn't just facetiously suggest that Adam "was brought from another planet".
I didn't know Brigham made a comment of this type. As for the above Young quote it sounds like a twist on the babylonian version, which claim god’s came from another planet but the humans were created here to toil and work for the Gods.
Enki, from Sumerian mythology, suggested the humans be created from clay, with the blood and flesh of a god who offered the suggestion. This mythology has produced a few modern beliefs that humans were genetically formed by the ‘gods’ which some people claim to be aliens from another planet.
http://history-world.org/sumerian_and_a ... _myths.htm
A summary of the Sumerian myths in a nutshell (check the above link for more detail) claim:
The Atrahasis myth, however, treats these themes with noticeable originality and remarkable depth. It relates, first, how the gods originally had to toil for a living, how they rebelled and went on strike, how Enki suggested that one of their number--the god We, apparently the ringleader who "had the idea"--be killed and mankind created from clay mixed with his flesh and blood, so that the toil of the gods could be laid on man and the gods left to go free. But after Enki and the birth goddess Nintur (another name for Ninmah) had created man, man multiplied at such a rate that the din he made kept Enlil sleepless. At first Enlil had Namtar, the god of death, cause a plague to diminish mankind's numbers, but the wise Atrahasis, at the advice of Enki, had man concentrate all worship and offerings on Namtar. Namtar, embarrassed at hurting people who showed such love and affection for him, stayed his hand.
The myth uses the motif of the protest of the gods against their hard toil and the creation of man to relieve it, which was depicted earlier in the Sumerian myth of "Enki and Ninmah," and also the motif of the Flood, which occurred in the "Eridu Genesis." The import of these motifs here is, however, new: they bring out the basic precariousness of man's existence; man's usefulness to the gods will not protect him unless he takes care not to annoy them, however innocently. He must stay within bounds; there are limits set for his self-expression.
Next Enlil had Adad, the god of rains, hold back the rains and thus cause a famine…The ensuing famine was terrible. By the seventh year one house consumed the other and people began eating their own children. At that point Enki--accidentally he maintained--let through a wealth of fish from the sea and so saved man. With this, however, Enlil's patience was at an end and he thought of the Flood as a means to get rid of humanity once and for all. Enki, however, warned Atrahasis and had him build a boat in which he saved himself, his family, and all animals.
((sounds like the Noah story}} The o.t. fear of the 7 years of famine story.
The Babylonian creation story has similarities to the Bible. In this version the “gods” are referred to as the people that were created. There appear to be a few definitions of Gods as the earlier version describes Enlil and Enki group as being Gods also. Apsu was the water God Water. The water mixed with the sea, Tiamat which formed the Gods(people). The gods(people) were noisy which upset Apsu(Sumerian Enlil, Hebrew YHWH).
When the youngest of the gods, the clever Ea (Sumerian Enki), heard about the planned attack he forestalled it by means of a powerful spell with which he poured slumber on Apsu/Enlil, killed him, and built his temple over him.
The serpent/snake was very likely Ea/Enki with a desire to take the created humans into a more evolved state.
The continuous biblical fight between the o.t. God, Yahweh and the snake or Satan may theoretically be a Christian representation of the Sumerian fight between Enki and Enlil. As the old testament fight between Cain and Able may also be representative of the enlil/Enki fight.
As a side note, I have to wonder if the below Sumerian mythology was the origin of Hindu Shiva mythology as kingu:
Enlil once tried to kill mankind by allowing the ice age floods to engulf all mankind but his plans were foiled by Ea /Enki who went against orders and warned a group of his favorite humans and gave them advanced technological know how so that they could build a semi submersible vessel to ride out the catastrophe. This according to the Sumerian creation tales that the Bible later condensed and changed. Interesting though that the Hindu Sanksrit text Rig Veda, and other Hindu texts dating from a few thousand years BCE describe such vessels and Nazi Germany translated the Sanskrit Vedas to produce advanced technology flying vessels during WW2. (Apparently the ancient technology in the Rig Veda was workable technology.)
Judaism is based on the following of Yahweh and is basically a sister religion in many ways to the Christians, even though Judaism is more rooted in mysticism despite their obvious differences.
Enlil is another name for the Hebrew God, Yahweh YHWH, of the old testament, who the Christians also worship, as do the Jews.
Islam is also based on the worship of the god of Abraham, or once again Yahweh/Enlil though they refer to him as Allah . All three groups are basically subdivisions of the same original teachings from the same deity that haggle over the different ideas and practices that they embrace (even though they have some major differences the root is the same) much the way different Christian groups do.
Christians and other cultures have manipulated the original story line and changed the god Ea/Enki, who brought about the birth of humankind and would later befriend the human race, fight to keep them alive and set them free making Ea a Demon/Snake/Serpent and have set Enlil/YHWH
up high as the one and only true God, even though, based on Sumerian mythology Enlil/YHWH did not like humans very much; considered them annoying and couldn’t wait to genocide or cull them feeling that they were noisy and bred too quickly. He is now the God they worship ( as the story goes ) and seeks to keep mankind ignorant and enslaved. If these “GODS” are still alive from that era, (and some claim they are) why the dishonesty?
http://history-world.org/sumerian_and_a ... _myths.htmBut after Enki and the birth goddess Nintur (another name for Ninmah) had created man, man multiplied at such a rate that the din he made kept Enlil sleepless. At first Enlil had Namtar, the god of death, cause a plague to diminish mankind's numbers, but the wise Atrahasis, at the advice of Enki, had man concentrate all worship and offerings on Namtar.
Why would the churches founding fathers change the story line if they are all about love and truth? By this time the founding fathers know where the story line came from. Their own scholars do not deny that anymore, due to the overwhelming amount of evidence left behind by ancient civilizations, historians and archaeologists.
In the Jewish tradition, Satan is an angel who faithfully serves God as a prosecuting attorney - one who accuses men of wickedness and impiety. At the direction of God, Satan may be permitted to test these accusations, such as in Job. and, according to Jews, still is the assistant to God, tasked by God with testing the righteousness of the faithful.
In this view, Satans goal is not to lead men away from their faithfulness to God, but merely to reveal the true depths of their devotion, although in I Chronicles 21:1 Satan provoked David to take a census of the people of Israel against the will of God and 70,000 men are slain because of it. It is only in Christian and Islamic belief that Lucifer is evil and that he was thrown out of heaven.
In many circles it is believed that Satan and Lucifer had two separate origins; were two separate beings. I theorize that Lucifer of the old testament is the translation of Enki/Ea, in Sumerian mythology, the Babylonion king, ‘fallen’ from heaven for creating the slaves and depicted the on-going fight between Enlil and Enki. Lucifer, being the Light bearer, who fell from heaven, (Enki) or out of favor with Enlil and other gods, because Enlil was annoyed (according to Sumerian myths) with the slaves he made. According to myth Enki wished to advance them and defend them rather than keep them as work slaves. To Enlil they were an annoying breeding creation that should be culled.
Is Jesus a representation of Enki/Ea’s more gentler approach to humans? The book of revelation would like a departure back to the o.t. YHWH/Enlils approach. The 4 gospels appears to have elements of a kinder God to “help” people; while the Book of Revelation again tends to use more of a destroying o.t. God YHWH approach.
http://www.realdevil.information/5-5.htm
link above:
H.A. Kelly- one of the leading historians of religious ideas of recent times- observed from much research that "It was not until post-Biblical times that Lucifer was associated with Satan, or that Satan was thought to have been cast out of heaven before the creation of Adam and Eve, or that Satan had some connection with Adam and Eve". The New Testament references to Jesus as the morning star, Venus, have been read by H.A. Kelly as a conscious allusion to the growing idea that Lucifer ['light-bringer', heosphoros in Greek, the dawn-bringer] / Venus, the morning star, was in fact something or someone evil. All the N.T. references to the morning star are positive, and all refer to Jesus (2 Pet. 1:19; Rev. 2:28; 22:16). It's possible to read Jn. 1:8 in this context, too. Here John the Baptist is described as "bearing witness to the light", which was language understandable with reference to Venus, the Morning Star which is seen in the East just before the Sun rises in the West.
It should be noted that the idea of 'morning star' is translated 'Lucifer' in the Vulgate [Latin] translation of the Bible made by Jerome. Significantly, he uses 'Lucifer' as a description of Christ, as the 'morning star' mentioned in Revelation. Indeed, some early Christians took the name 'Lucifer' as a 'Christian name' in order to identify themselves with Jesus. (Nick Lunn, Alpha And Omega (Sutton, UK: Willow, 1992) p. 254. It wasn't until Origen that the term 'Lucifer' took on any connotation of 'Satan' or a force of evil; and even then it was only popularized much later in Milton's Paradise Lost . 'Lucifer' in its strict meaning of 'bearer of the light' actually was applied in a positive sense to Christian communities, e.g. the followers of Lucifer of Cagliari were called 'Luciferians'. As an aside, it's worth pointing out that they were one of the groups who insisted that the devil was not a personal being and held to the original Biblical picture of sin and the devil.
Suggested Explanations:
Isaiah 14: 4, sets the context of the verses we are considering: “Thou shalt take up this proverb (parable) against the king of Babylon...”.
Note: This is a parable story.
"How did you come to fall from the heavens, Daystar, son of Dawn"? (Isaiah 14:12). Some Bibles like the KJV use the word "Lucifer" then add a capital 'L' to make it a proper noun and a name. The literal Hebrew is "a shining one." The planet Venus, i.e. the morning star, or Daystar as it is commonly called was a symbol of Babylonian power. This power was closely identified with astrolatry (star worship). The word "Lucifer" is another one of those unfortunate uses of medieval Latin originating out of the KJV to become a name for "satan" (which it is not) whose fall was supposed to be shadowed in this verse and the next.
Verse 20 says that Lucifer’s seed will be destroyed. Verse 22 says that Babylon’s seed will be destroyed, thus equating them.
An idea insert: (if we reference this to the Sumerian myths Enki could represent the parable/play of the Babylonian King/God and Enki’s seed could transfer as the work slaves he created, which Enlil had little patience for and sought ways to destroy these slave creations.) Revelation book also talks about a culling and destroying in Enki/Enlil fashion. Enki trying to save while God the Destroyer aspect destroys and culls the humans.
Isaiah concept of Lucifer Fallen God/angel is very similar to the style variations of the Sumerian Elnil/Enki, Tiamat/Aspu, Marduk/Kingu etc. God Jehovah of the o.t. in Isaiah resembles Enlil who dislikes the humans (even though he recognizes a useful purpose) and goes on killing, culling sprees. Chapter 15 describes more of his culling spree while chapter 14: verse 29 an 30 describe again the serpent (enki) and the serpent/king of Babylon/Enki - the fallen one - fallen out of favor for assisting the people. Vs 30 Jehovah/Elnil will kill the root and seed (as the myths have always described because he dislikes them.)
I've added the text from Isaiah for convenience:
Isa 14:26
This is the counsel which is purposed concerning the whole earth; and this is the hand which is stretched out upon all the nations.
Isa 14:27For Jehovah of hosts hath purposed, and who shall frustrate [it]? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
Isa 14:28 In the year of the death of king Ahaz was this burden:
Isa 14:29Rejoice not thou, Philistia, all of thee, because the rod that smote thee is broken; for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a viper, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
Isa 14:30 And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; but I will kill thy root with famine, and thy remnant shall be slain.
Isa 14:31 Howl, O gate! cry, O city! thou, Philistia, art wholly dissolved; for there cometh from the north a smoke, and none remaineth apart in his gatherings [of troops].
Isa 14:32 And what shall be answered to the messengers of the nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and the afflicted of his people find refuge in it.
In this case where does that leave Joseph Smiths translation of the Bible and the Book of Mormon which copies whole segments of the Bible?
hmmm, fascinating.
Again, some of the theories presented here by myself are just that - ideas.
But its fun to play with ideas.