Marduk

Marduk (Sumerian; spelling in Akkadian Amarutu — "solar calf"; Biblical Merodach) was the name of a late generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon. When Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi (18th century B.C.E.), Marduk rose to the head of the Babylonian pantheon, a position he fully acquired by the second half of the second millennium B.C.E. He was also referred simply as "Bel," meaning Lord, or Bel-Marduk. Marduk was thus the chief deity of the Babylonian empire during the period of Jewish exile in Babylon (6th-5th centuries B.C.E.) It was Marduk whom Cyrus the Great of Persia credited with the inspiration to allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple of Yahwheh.

Hisory and Character

Marduk literally means "bull calf of the sun." He was one of the sons of Ea (called Enki in the Sumerian myths), the creator/crafstman deity. Sometimes portrayed as double-headed, he was later given the title Bel, or "Lord," and was refered to simply as "Bel" in a manner similar to that of the Canaanite Baal (master/lord) and the Israelite Yawheh (the Lord). In later times, especially with the rise of the city of Babylon, Marduk became identified with the chief diety, Enlil.

Marduk and his dragon, from a Babylonian cylinder seal

In Babylonian astrology, Marduk was connected to the planet known to us asJupiter. As the ruler of the late Babylonian pantheon, he was equated with the Greek god Zeus (Latin Jupiter). The planet was thus given the name for Roman deity who occupied Marduk's position.

In the Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish, Marduk was appointed as the champion of the gods and slew the tyranical primordial sea-serpent goddess Tiamat. He then claimed the tablets of destiny, fastened them to his own breast and created a new world order that included humankind. In this story it is also Marduk who initiated the astrological system and created the signs of the zokiak. Marduk remained an important deity from at least the time of Hammurabi until well into the Persian period around 400 B.C.E. A ziggarut (tower) devoted to Marduk is thought by some scholars to be the source of the story of the Tower of Babel. [1]

Marduk in the Enuma Elish

When Babylon became the capital of Mesopotamia, the patron deity of Babylon was elevated to the level of supreme god. Some scholars believe the Enûma Elish was written to explain how Marduk came to a position of supreme power. Also included in this document are the fifty names of Marduk.

In Enûma Elish, a civil war between the gods was growing to a climactic battle. The Anunnaki gods gathered together to find one god who could defeat the gods rising against them. Marduk, a very young god, answered the call and was promised the position of head god.

When he killed his enemy, he "wrested from him the Tablets of Destiny, wrongfully his" and assumed his new position. Under his reign humans were created to bear the burdens of life so the gods could be at leisure.

O Marduk, thou art our avenger!

We give thee sovereignty over the whole world.

Sit thou down in might; be exalted in thy command.

Thy weapon shall never lose its power; it shall crush thy foe.

O Lord, spare the life of him that putteth his trust in thee,

But as for the god who began the rebellion, pour out his life."

Then set they in their midst a garment,

And unto Marduk,- their first-born they spake:

"May thy fate, O lord, be supreme among the gods,

To destroy and to create; speak thou the word, and thy command shall be fulfilled.

— Tablet 4

She was like one posessed, She lost her reason.

Tiamat uttered wild, piercing cries,

She trembled and shook to her very foundations.

She recited an incantation, she pronounced her spell,

And the gods of the battle cried out for their weapons.

Then advanced Tiamat and Marduk, the counselor of the gods;

To the fight they came on, to the battle they drew nigh.

The lord spread out his net and caught her,

And the evil wind that was behind him he let loose in her face.

As Tiamat opened her mouth to its full extent,

He drove in the evil wind, while as yet she had not shut her lips.

The terrible winds filled her belly,

And her courage was taken from her, and her mouth she opened wide.

He seized the spear and burst her belly,

He severed her inward parts, he pierced her heart.

He overcame her and cut off her life;

He cast down her body and stood upon it.

When he had slain Tiamat, the leader,

Her might was broken, her host was scattered.

And the gods her helpers, who marched by her side,

Trembled, and were afraid, and turned back.

They took to flight to save their lives;

But they were surrounded, so that they could not escape.

He took them captive, he broke their weapons;

In the net they were caught and in the snare they sat down.

They filled the world with cries of grief.

(Tablet four)

Marduk and the Bible

Jeremiah 50:2 records a purported late prophecy of Jeremiah predicting the downfall Babylon, in which Marduk will be "filled with terror":

Announce and proclaim among the nations,

lift up a banner and proclaim it;

keep nothing back, but say,

'Babylon will be captured;

Bel will be put to shame,

Marduk filled with terror.

Her images will be put to shame

and her idols filled with terror.

However in most of the Book of Jeremiah, the prophet takes a pro-Babylonian stance, counseling submission to Babylonian rule and advising the Judean exiles in Babylon to pray for its king.

The Bible also refers to an act of Cyrus the Great of Persia — allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild Yahweh's Temple — that Cyrus himself says was inspired by Marduk. After his capture of Babylon, Cyrus reverse the policy of his predecessors who had captured the priests and destroyed the temples of the people they had conquered. He proclaimed the restoration of the indigenous religious cults in the countries he now controlled.

Ezra 5:13 mentions the event: "In the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree to rebuild this house of God." The Book of Isaiah records a prophecy in which Yahweh takes the credit for inspiring Cyrus' act:

I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness:

I will make all his ways straight.

He will rebuild my city

and set my exiles free (Isaiah 45:13)

Cyrus' own records, however, give the credit to Marduk. The act is memorialized in the "Cyrus Cylinder", which was discovered in 1879 in Babylon. It reads, in part:

Marduk, the great lord, established as his fate for me a magnanimous heart of one who loves Babylon, and I daily attended to his worship... I returned the images of the gods, who had resided there [in Babylon], to their places and I let them dwell in eternal abodes. I gathered all their inhabitants and returned to them their dwellings.

The word "Merodach," which is found as part of the name of several non-Israelite kings in the Bible, is a Hebrew version of Marduk. Some scholars believe that name of the biblical character Mordecai, portrayed in the Bible as the uncle of the Jewish Queen Esther of Persia and later prime minister under King Xerxes, is also a derivation of Marduk.

The deity refered to as Bel in Isaiah 46:1, Jeremiah 50: 2, and Jeremiah 51:44, is also probably Marduk. The story "Bel and the Dragon"[2], appended to the Book of Daniel in some Christian Bibles describe how the prophet Daniel exposes a priestly fraud by the priest of Bel-Marduk who pretend that an idol consumes large quantities of food which they are actually using to enrich themselves and their families.

External links

The Mystica (article about Marduk)

Putting God on Trial — The Biblical Book of Job (a Biblical reworking of the combat motif between Tiamat and Marduk).

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