John:
>Glen's speculations upon "six" and "seven" in a Semitic religious
>context goes even deeper - to a Sumerian one.
No, I can't agree. The Sumerian religions are not the source, but
rather the result. There's a larger commonality of worldview amongst
peoples around the eastern Mediterranean and Middle-East caused
by a flurry of prehistoric trade during the neolithic. The Sumerians
are one of many that adopted and adapted these common views
of the area.
>The earliest cosmologies all saw the creation of the cosmos as a
>result of a "hieros gamos" or sacred marriage, a balance between a
>masculine and a feminine principle in which the offspring were
>differentiated as a progression bringing the world into completion.
Ah... a sacred marriage. Yes. Now that reminds me of the "sun chief"
idea whereupon the chief is a son and consort of the goddess, thereby
giving him authority to rule and making him a living divine figure.
A demi-god like Heracles, if you will -- the glory of Hera.
John:
>Sumerian Sa-ba-ududa, in Akkadian became Sabbatu, the "Seventh" day,
>or day of rest (the Biblical Sabbath). Thus the Semitic word for
>seven actually has a Sumerian source.
To this, I have to say that you flipped your lid. The root for "seven"
is reconstructed with certainty in Semitic as *sab`- and thus cannot in
any way, shape or form, derive from Sumerian because Proto-Semitic
was spoken a couple thousand years earlier. Don't quit your day job.
= gLeN
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