The Origin
Of
Our Belief In God
by Erik Langkjer
Part I: El and Baal, the Shepherd and the Hunter
16. North Syrian Temple
M. von Oppenheim's expedition to Tell Halaf has not only given us the beautiful painted bowls from the prehistoric Halafian culture, but also brought to light the ruins of a temple from the 9th century B.C. Passing along an endless gallery of sculptured stone slabs, the visitor will finally reach the "Scorpion Gate". Inside the temple area the processional road will turn 180 degrees, and suddenly you are standing face to face with the temple-facade with a giant portico as entrance to the temple rooms inside. The top-stone is supported by three gods. A male standing in the centre on the back of a bull, a female and another male standing on lions. If we compare with the material from Catal Hüyük, we can quickly conclude that they must be the high god, the goddess and the hunter. And as a matter of fact the lion carrying the hunter has a stag with its stomach ripped open lying between its legs. If we pass the lion carrying the god, we can move on through a kind of hall to the inner chamber. The entrance to this room is guarded by a lion, in some ways identical with the lion at the entrance to the hall, but looking much more demonic. It has the head of an eagle and big folded wing and a tail covered with scales. The two lions are parallels, the last being a demonised variation of the first. It has taken both the nature of the eagle and the scorpion into its lion nature, thereby becoming an ecstatic (eagle), but also using sex as a way to vision (the scorpion). Its visionary power is stressed by the inlaid eyes being placed in something similar to telescopic tubes. The same scary eyes are seen on two eagles put on the top of two pillars in the temple court outside.
Reconstruction, Tell Halaf II,p.68.
To the left and right the hunter is seen shooting the bull and the stag.
The bull carrying the central god is standing in a mountainous landscape where the hunter, easily recognisable by his heavy kilt, turns his bow and arrow towards a goat eating from the tree of life. Although the central god is the high god standing on his bull, everything in this temple seems to stand under the sign of the great hunter.
The goddess is standing on the back of a she-lion with a small cub sucking her between the legs. The many stone-slabs show a scenario not so different from what could be seen in the paradisos in the great temple of Mabbug in Roman times. They show 35 trees, 10 lions, bull, horse, goats by the tree of life, boar, leopard, eagle, ostrich, hare, beaver, and lions fighting bulls. To that is added a lot of composite animals: winged lion, winged lion with an eagle´s head and a scorpion´s tail, winged lion with a human face, winged lion with both the face of a human and the face of a lion, winged lion with two heads, winged lion with the tail of a bird and the horns of a bull.
There is also a lot of hunting-scenes: hunting for lions, bull, eagle, goose(?), and a giant fish. The hunters are 11 bowmen, 8 armed with curved clubs, a weapon also carried by the male gods. Finally there is a warrior who seems to carry the skin of a beast of pray wrapped around his kilt (Moortgat asks if it could be a shield?[1])
Beautiful decorations are found on the walls. The stepped pinnacle must be a symbol of the primordial mountain. There are different variations of the snake coil. Mystical quadrangle. Mystical rosette. Tell Halaf II, p.73.
The composite lion-like creatures are to be interpreted as Genii, "helping demons" (especially the winged ones). From a much later period we have an episode told in Photios Bibliotheca, ch.203: a man saw a meteor falling from the sky in the neighbourhood of Emesa. In that very moment a giant lion approached the spot where it had fallen, but disappeared immediately afterwards. When the man asked the stone what god it belonged to, it answered Gennaios, a god honoured in Hierapolis in the bodily shape of a lion. The composite animals and humans are the train of demons following the great hunter. The inner chambers are interesting by the fact that they do not contain any platform or niche for the idol, but in the biggest room was found a square stone-plate in a frame with wheels underneath, perhaps some mobile fireplace. In our opinion the inner chambers were dining rooms for a marzeah, serving the hunter and dining in the presence of helping demons and the spirits of the deceased. But not only dining: a so-called "Tierkapelle" is shown on one of the slabs (III,t.100). It shows the orgiastic changing of the participants into lions, dogs, and donkey. The donkey even being very, very dirty. A decoration on a musical instrument from 2600 B.C. excavated in Ur shows Gilgamesh/the hunter putting two divine bulls into submission. His followers, the panther and the lion, are bringing food and drink, the donkey is playing music, and the bear, the scorpion, and a little goat are dancing.
A Mesopotamian Seal shows lion and donkey drinking together (Frankfort). Acc. to Moortgat [2] such "Animal Music-bands", "Tierkapellen" are rather common in the North Syrian, North Mesopotamian area in the post-Hurritic period.
That the hunt for the bull is also a spiritual symbol is seen from the motif on one of the slabs from Tell Halaf. Note the bird of ecstasy standing ready to fly on the head of the hunter (III,t.42). A very important motif is the hunter subduing a symbol of vegetation. Either the hunter will grab around the top of a plant or branch and brutally force it downwards, or he will enter a tree, or wrestle with it (III,t.31). This is the Lycourgos-motif already dealt with.
He is like Sandan world-pillar. The bullmen lifting the bird of ecstasy to make room for the "Knielauf" of the sun (the picture above in the chapt. The snake…) and the Lycourgos-man as world-pillar lifting the bird of ecstacy is almost the same motif. Ecstasy is primordial unity lifted to allow room for the sun to shine and man´s civilisation to develop.
Of special interest are the very massive stone idols, almost big cubes in massive stone showing a god or a goddess sitting on a box-like seat. The massive stone signals stability and eternity. It is the eternal house for a spirit passed into a transcendent status as one of the ´ilim or rephaim. All these idols have a small stone-cup for the offering of an alcoholic drink. It is the drinking of wine or beer that bridges the gap between the dead and the living. The statue of black basalt shown above (II,p.358,fig.8o) was originally placed in a small chapel with an opening towards east, but later a fortress wall was erected over the place, and the idol was covered by bricks. Under it is a small shaft with the urn and a few gifts.
[1] Tell Halaf III, t.19a. Moortgat is the editor of vol.III.
[2] Tammuz,p.22
Disclaimer:
Some material presented will contain links, quotes, ideologies, etc., the contents of which should be understood to first, in their whole, reflect the views or opinions of their editors, and second, are used in my personal research as "fair use" sources only, and not espousement one way or the other. Researching for 'truth' leads one all over the place...a piece here, a piece there. As a researcher, I hunt, gather and disassemble resources, trying to put all the pieces into a coherent and logical whole. I encourage you to do the same. And please remember, these pages are only my effort to collect all the pieces I can find and see if they properly fit into the 'reality aggregate'.
Personal Position:
I've come to realize that 'truth' boils down to what we 'believe' the facts we've gathered point to. We only 'know' what we've 'experienced' firsthand. Everything else - what we read, what we watch, what we hear - is what someone else's gathered facts point to and 'they' 'believe' is 'truth', so that 'truth' seems to change in direct proportion to newly gathered facts divided by applied plausibility. Though I believe there is 'truth', until someone representing the celestial realm visibly appears and presents the heavenly records of Facts And Lies In The Order They Happened, I can't know for sure exactly what "the whole truth' on any given subject is, and what applies to me applies to everyone. Until then I'll continue to ask, "what does The Urantia Book say on the subject?"
~Gail Bird Allen
-
Urantia Book, 44:0.11 - The Celestial Artisans
Never in your long ascendancy will you lose the power to recognize your associates of former existences. Always, as you ascend inward in the scale of life, will you retain the ability to recognize and fraternize with the fellow beings of your previous and lower levels of experience. Each new translation or resurrection will add one more group of spirit beings to your vision range without in the least depriving you of the ability to recognize your friends and fellows of former estates.
-
Princess Bride 1987 Wallace Shawn (Vizzini) and Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya)
Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. -
Urantia Book, 117:4.14 - The Finite God
And here is mystery: The more closely man approaches God through love, the greater the reality -- actuality -- of that man. The more man withdraws from God, the more nearly he approaches nonreality -- cessation of existence. When man consecrates his will to the doing of the Father's will, when man gives God all that he has, then does God make that man more than he is.
-
Urantia Book, 167:7.4 - The Talk About Angels
"And do you not remember that I said to you once before that, if you had your spiritual eyes anointed, you would then see the heavens opened and behold the angels of God ascending and descending? It is by the ministry of the angels that one world may be kept in touch with other worlds, for have I not repeatedly told you that I have other sheep not of this fold?"
-
Urantia Book, Foreword - 0:12.12 - The Trinities
But we know that there dwells within the human mind a fragment of God, and that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit of Truth; and we further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable material man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that these spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the spiritual appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement of the ever-progressing reality of personal religious experience—God-consciousness.
-
Urantia Book, 1:4.3 - The Mystery Of God
When you are through down here, when your course has been run in temporary form on earth, when your trial trip in the flesh is finished, when the dust that composes the mortal tabernacle "returns to the earth whence it came"; then, it is revealed, the indwelling "Spirit shall return to God who gave it." There sojourns within each moral being of this planet a fragment of God, a part and parcel of divinity. It is not yet yours by right of possession, but it is designedly intended to be one with you if you survive the mortal existence.
-
Urantia Book, 1:4.1 - The Mystery Of God
And the greatest of all the unfathomable mysteries of God is the phenomenon of the divine indwelling of mortal minds. The manner in which the Universal Father sojourns with the creatures of time is the most profound of all universe mysteries; the divine presence in the mind of man is the mystery of mysteries.
-
Urantia Book, 1:4.6 - The Mystery Of God
To every spirit being and to every mortal creature in every sphere and on every world of the universe of universes, the Universal Father reveals all of his gracious and divine self that can be discerned or comprehended by such spirit beings and by such mortal creatures. God is no respecter of persons, either spiritual or material. The divine presence which any child of the universe enjoys at any given moment is limited only by the capacity of such a creature to receive and to discern the spirit actualities of the supermaterial world.
-
Urantia Book, 11:0.1 - The Eternal Isle Of Paradise
Paradise is the eternal center of the universe of universes and the abiding place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their divine co-ordinates and associates. This central Isle is the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe. Paradise is a material sphere as well as a spiritual abode. All of the intelligent creation of the Universal Father is domiciled on material abodes; hence must the absolute controlling center also be material, literal. And again it should be reiterated that spirit things and spiritual beings are real.
-
Urantia Book, 50:6.4 - Planetary Culture
Culture presupposes quality of mind; culture cannot be enhanced unless mind is elevated. Superior intellect will seek a noble culture and find some way to attain such a goal. Inferior minds will spurn the highest culture even when presented to them ready-made.
-
Urantia Book, 54:1.6 - True And False Liberty
True liberty is the associate of genuine self-respect; false liberty is the consort of self-admiration. True liberty is the fruit of self-control; false liberty, the assumption of self-assertion. Self-control leads to altruistic service; self-admiration tends towards the exploitation of others for the selfish aggrandizement of such a mistaken individual as is willing to sacrifice righteous attainment for the sake of possessing unjust power over his fellow beings.
-
Urantia Book, 54:1.9 - True And False Liberty
How dare the self-willed creature encroach upon the rights of his fellows in the name of personal liberty when the Supreme Rulers of the universe stand back in merciful respect for these prerogatives of will and potentials of personality! No being, in the exercise of his supposed personal liberty, has a right to deprive any other being of those privileges of existence conferred by the Creators and duly respected by all their loyal associates, subordinates, and subjects.
-
Urantia Book, 54:1.8 - True And False Liberty
There is no error greater than that species of self-deception which leads intelligent beings to crave the exercise of power over other beings for the purpose of depriving these persons of their natural liberties. The golden rule of human fairness cries out against all such fraud, unfairness, selfishness, and unrighteousness.