Re: [tied] Re: All of creation in Six and Seven

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marco Moretti" <marcomoretti69@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 3:27 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: All of creation in Six and Seven


> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "John" <jdcroft@...> wrote:
> > Glen's speculations upon "six" and "seven" in a Semitic religious
> > context goes even deeper - to a Sumerian one.
> >
> > For instance we find in Sumerian the feminine Tiamat balanced with
> > the masculine Abzu as the primary divinities. Tiamat is in fact
> > an "Akkadianisation" of a Sumerian name *Ti = Life, *Ama = Mother.
> > Tiamat (the *-T was a feminine ending in Akkadian), thus is "The
> > mother of all living", a title in the Bible reserved for Hawah
> > (Eve). Tiamat is in fact found in the opening verses of
> > Genesis, "In the beginning God created heaven and earth and
> darkness
> > was on the face of the deeps". The word for Deeps, in Canaanite-
> > Hebrew was *Tehowm, which is derived from the earlier Sumerian
> > *Tiama.

<PCR> While I agree with you that Hebrew teho:m is hardly to be derived from Sumerian ti-ama, I am inclined to believe that Akkadian tia:mat is derived from it.

In the overwhelming number of instances, the pastoral Semites borrowed culturally from the civilized Sumerians. Water has been considered by many cultures to be spiritually associated with the origin of life, and the term (or its near equivalent) would not be surprising to find in many, many cultures arounf the world.

> No. Tiamat is a Semitic word not a Sumerian one. We have a WELL
> ATTESTED Hebrew teho:m "gap", "Deeps"; *tehowm is only orthographic,
> the waw has no reality at all, and the item is not a product of
> speculation. Tiamat is the Akkadian form, in which the ancient
> aspiration was lost, and with a feminine suffix.

<PCR>Aspiration is properly an attribute of a consonant. /h/ is not "aspiration".

It is not definitely
> a Sumerian item. Semitic is sufficient to explain it. Your Sumerian
> etymon is ill-formed, and doesn't account at all for the Hebrew
> aspiration, that is a phoneme, not a simple hiatus separator.

<PCR>If the Hebrew term is unrelated, as I believe it to be, the "aspiration" need not be explained.


> > *Abzu also is Sumerian, as it related to the "Watery Deeps" from
> the
> > Sumerian *A, or *Ab = Water, or Semen and *Zu = Deeps, far. The
> > Abzu was the name of the watery marshes which surrounded the hill
> on
> > which the world's first city was built. This city; Eridu, had a
> > temple contained within it, built upon a spring (or Abzu), vitally
> > important in an environment where the rainfall is less than 5
> inches
> > annually. The whole temple was called the Abzu, and was sacred to
> > the Sumerian God Enki (more on him later), whose other name Ea was
> > Sumerian for "House of Water" from Sumerian *E = House, and *A =
> > water. It has been suggested that the Greek (and modern English
> > word) Abyss, comes from the Sumerian Abzu.
>
> In Sumerian /a/ is "water". It is not /ab/. The word /ab/ is a late
> Sumerian development of /aba/, "lake"; "sea", that is a compound
> of /ab/, hole + /a/, water.

<PCR>To my knowledge, ab does not have the meaning of "hole". What is your source for this?

> Sumerian /zu/ is "to know", so /ab-zu/ is "Sentient Abyss". It is so
> translated by Sumerianists.
>


Pat