Ancient Sumerian Origins of the Easter Story

Evangelicals across the political spectrum, from Pat Robertson to Jim Wallis, seek to shape our government and life-ways by appealing to the authority of the Christian Bible. It is virtually impossible to understand American politics without understanding the book that drives their priorities. Given that three quarters of Americans are Christians, I would argue that it is virtually impossible to move forward as a people without growing our understanding of the Book.

The Christian Bible culminates in a death and resurrection story. What is this story, and where did it come from? In this post, Valerie Tarico, author of The Dark Side, interviews Dr. Tony Nugent, scholar of world religions and mythology. Dr. Nugent is a symbologist, an expert in ancient symbols. He taught at Seattle University for fifteen years in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies and is a Presbyterian minister.

Easter is coming. Some people are saying that the crucifixion and resurrection narratives simply retell the cycle of seasons, the death and return of the Sun. Others say that these stories are literal histories. But you say the reality is more complicated than either of these. You argue that the Easter stories - the death and resurrection of Jesus have very specific mythic origins.
I view the story of Christ in the Gospels of the New Testament as a powerful and spiritually wise sacred story. While the story is told as if it happened, it is a theologically and mythically constructed history. The conclusion of the story, the account of Christ's crucifixion, resurrection and ascension to heaven, has many layers. But at its core I would say it is an historicized version of a very ancient myth from Mesopotamia, the Cradle of Civilization, the land we today call Iraq.

What does that mean?
Some stories speak to people in a deep spiritual way. These sacred stories are what are called "myths" in the field of religious studies. Despite our common usage, a myth traditionally is not just a false tale. Rather, it is a story that, at least at one point in time, had a very powerful spiritual resonance. The story of death and resurrection is one such story. In the Sumerian tradition, in which much of the Bible is rooted, the story is called, "From the Great Above to the Great Below" or "The Descent of Inanna." There is also a Babylonian version of the myth, which is called "The Descent of Ishtar," and she is known elsewhere as Astarte.

Let's hear the story!
The Sumerian goddess Inanna is the personification of the planet Venus the "Queen of Heaven" and a major deity in the Sumerian pantheon. A long, long time ago, before humans are even created, Inanna, takes a journey to the Underworld, a realm under the control of her sister Ereshkigal. Before heading out Inanna gives instructions to her assistant about rescuing her if she runs into trouble, which she does. In the underworld, she enters through seven gates, and her worldly attire is removed. "Naked and bowed low" she is judged, killed, and then hung on display.

I can't help but notice that the number seven is a sacred, just like it will be later in the Bible.
Yes, the numbers three, seven, twelve are sacred throughout ancient Mesopotamian writings including the Hebrew Bible (seven days of creation, twelve tribes of Israel) and subsequently Christianity (three days in the tomb, twelve apostles, twelve days of Christmas). They have their roots in universal human perceptions of the movements of the heavens (e.g. twelve signs of the zodiac).

To return to the story, the result of Inanna's death is that the earth becomes sterile. Plants start drying up, and animals cease having sexual relations. Unless something is done all life on earth will end. After Inanna has been missing for three days her assistant goes to other gods for help. Finally one of them Enki, creates two creatures who carry the plant of life and water of life down to the Underworld, sprinkling them on Inanna and resurrecting her. She then prepares to return to the upper realm.

So Inanna is the prototype for Jesus in the Easter story?
Not quite. She is part of the prototype. After Inanna gets out of the underworld we are introduced to her husband Dumuzi. When mythic stories get passed from one culture to the next, sometimes one character can split into two or two characters come together. In this case, the Jesus of the resurrection story blends parts of Inanna and Dimuzi.

Ok, let's hear about Dumuzi.
The Underworld has a number of names, including "the Great Earth" and "the Great City", and it is also called the "Land of No Return." If, by extraordinary chance, someone is resurrected or escapes from there, a substitute must be provided. So when Inanna returns to the upper realm she searches for a substitute. She doesn't want to send anyone who has been missing her and mourning her down there, but she finds her husband Dumuzi on his throne and totally unconcerned about her being gone. She decides that he will be her substitute.

He protests vigorously and is helped to escape by his brother-in-law Utu, the Sun-god. But then a compromise is agreed upon, whereby Dumuzi will spend six months of every year in the Underworld, and for the other six months his devoted sister will substitute for him. Life and fertility thus return to the earth. And that's how the story ends.

Six months up and six down. Now I am reminded of Persephone.
Yes, and many other dying and rising gods that represent the cycle of the seasons and the stars. In Christianity one way the story changes is that it is detached from this agricultural cycle. The dying happens just once.

But this story of Inanna/Ishtar is the oldest, the prototype?
It is one of the earliest epic myths recorded. We know this story because it has been found inscribed on cuneiform clay tablets dug up from the sands of Iraq by archaeologists, and because linguists have deciphered the Sumerian language and provided translations in English. This was a popular myth, and so we have multiple copies of it, or of portions of it. The earliest tablets inscribed with this story date to the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, and it is thought to have been originally formulated about 2100 BC, i.e., 4200 years ago.

Lay it out for us. How do you see this being a prototype for the story of Christ's death and resurrection?
Let's start with the first part of the myth. Inanna and Jesus both travel to a big city, where they are arrested by soldiers, put on trial, convicted, sentenced to death, stripped of their clothes, tortured, hung up on a stake, and die. And then, after 3 days, they are resurrected from the dead. Now there are, to be sure, a number of significant differences between the stories. For one thing, one story is about a goddess and the other is about a divine man. But this is a specific pattern, a mythic template. When you are dealing with the question of whether these things actually happened, you have to deal with the fact that there is a mythic template here. It doesn't necessarily mean that there wasn't a real person, Jesus, who was crucified, but rather that, if there was, the story about it is structured and embellished in accordance with a pattern that was very ancient and widespread.

So what about the 2nd part of the myth?
The 2nd part of the Inanna myth really focuses on her husband Dumuzi. Dumuzi is the prototype of the non-aggressive, non-heroic male; he cries easily; he is the opposite of the warrior-god in the ancient pantheon. The summer month which corresponds to our month of July is named after him in both the Babylonian and Hebrew calendars, and during this month each year his followers, mostly women, mourn his death. From this myth we are talking about, and from a few other references, we also know that he is resurrected. But unlike Jesus, who dies and is resurrected once, he is imagined to die and be resurrected over and over, each year. There are other major differences. However, there really are a lot of similarities between the personalities and the stories of Jesus and Dumuzi. They both are tortured and die violent deaths after being betrayed by a close friend, who accepts a bribe from his enemies. They both have a father who is a god and a mother who is human. Dumuzi's father, the god Enki, also has many similarities to Yahweh, the father of Jesus.

Other than this gospel story, are there any other signs of Inanna's influence on Christianity or on Easter?
There are a few points I would mention. Inanna becomes known outside of Mesopotamia by her Babylonian name, "Ishtar". She is a personification of Venus as an evening star, and there is also a male aspect of the deity who is usually the morning star. At the end of the Book of Revelation when Christ speaks to John he says, "I am the bright morning star." In ancient Canaan Ishtar is known as Astarte, and her counterparts in the Greek and Roman pantheons are known as Aphrodite and Venus. In the 4th Century, when Christians got around to identifying the exact site in Jerusalem where the empty tomb of Jesus had been located, they selected the spot where a temple of Aphrodite (Astarte/Ishtar/Inanna) stood. So they tore it down and built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest church in the Christian world.

Also, our holiday of Easter was traditionally called 'Pascha', and still is in many languages, named after the Jewish festival of 'Pesach' or Passover. In the Germanic and Anglo-Saxon world we have, however, come to name the holiday 'Easter'. This name is almost surely a reflex of the goddess Ishtar. In the pagan spiritual traditions of Germany and England in the medieval period Ishtar, who came to be called the goddess Easter, and who as a deity of resurrection and rebirth became strongly associated with the season of springtime and ultimately gave her name to Christianity's main holy day.

No rudeness intended, but how can you call yourself a Christian? Mark Driscoll, rising Evangelical star, told his Seattle congregation: "If the resurrection of Christ didn't literally happen, there is no reason for us to be here."
Well, many Christian theologians see the crucifixion and resurrection as a spiritual story rather than a literal one--a story about hope beyond despair, redemption and new life. But they are not the ones who get the media attention. I consider myself to be a Christian in a spiritual sense, not in a doctrinal sense. This means my Christianity is defined by values, spiritual practices, and faith rather than belief in a specific set of doctrinal agreements. Before the 4th Century, when orthodoxy was established, Christianity was characterized by heterodoxy -- many different forms of belief.

If the resurrection of Christ didn't literally happen, that shouldn't have any bearing on whether life now is worth living or how we live. From my vantage point, where values and practices are the heart of Christianity, the contradiction lies in people like our recent president who think it's ok to practice torture and yet call themselves Christians. Who would Jesus waterboard? Christ's torture and execution remind us that we are called to put an end to such practices in human affairs. From the standpoint of my Christianity, right-wing evangelical fundamentalism is really the opposite of what Christ was about. Those who subscribe to an intolerant, arrogant, inhumane form of Christianity are following a religion that is literally antichrist.

Comments

[BobGriffin]

A few problems:
1) Eostre/Ostara Ishtar/Athtar. Easter has its name because it generally occurs in April, which was, for the ancient Saxons, the month of Eostre or Ostara. There is no evidence of a connection between Saxon mythology and Sumerian or Babylonian mythology.
For the Assyrians, this is the month of Nisan (as it is for the Jews). The ancient terms for the holy day are 'Pesach', 'Pascha', 'Peskha', and 'Fetskha'. Only after the conversion of Germanic speakers do we get terms like 'Eostre' and 'Easter'.
2) The idea of a general resurrection (at the end of time) seems to have been characteristic of the Pharisees before Jesus was born. The resurrection of Jesus was understood by the early Christians to be a type of the general resurrection to come.
3) There are some hints that expectation of a messianic resurrection preceded the preaching of Jesus, if fragment found last year is not fake and being properly interpreted.
I am not a 'spiritual christian', since I believe that Jesus really did rise from the dead, in a way both similar to and different from the resurrection of the man buried in Elisha's tomb. On the other hand, I totally reject the ongoing search for political and economic power by the various churches, a search which violates everything that Jesus taught.

[BobGriffin]

clarification of 1st point:
Eostre/Ost­ara/Easter is not Ishtar/Athtar.

[Valerie Tarico - Huffpost Blogger]

Not being a symbologist myself, I will have to leave to the experts any discussion over whether there is syncratism through which Ishtar shaped Eostre. With regard to the Pharisees, given that resurrection stories saturated the mediteranean, I'm puzzed as to why you see this as contradicting what Dr. Nugent said.

[Mriana]

He knows his katabasis stories and myths in general. I am glad that he included the relationship of Jesus myth in the discussion too. You picked a good one to interview, Valerie. :) He was dead on with the myths, from what I can tell and from what I've learned. Thanks for sharing that interview.

JohnFromCensornati, I know what Bishop John Shelby Spong has said about the resurrection and he does not believe in a literal resurrection. You'll have to read his book "Resurrection: Myth or Reality" to get a clear idea of how he views the resurrection, in his own words. I'd say his belief is more of a metaphysical belief, because it is not literal. Metaphysical is a difficult one to explain in a short space, but the website "The Sea of Faith" (taken after Dan Cupitt's book title) gives some explanation of it. That is the best I can do in explaining what I know of "spiritual" Xians and their beliefs concerning the resurrection.

[Valerie Tarico - Huffpost Blogger]

Some do, some don't. The first time i heard someone say, "I'm a Christian but I don't believe that Jesus was uniquely divine," I thought --wow, that's a radical point of view. But it turns out her perspective wasn't as unusual as i thought.

[JohnFromCensornati]

"I'm a Christian but I don't believe that Jesus was uniquely divine." seems sensible rather than radical to me.
Believing that he was resurrected seems pretty literal to me.

[Zanti]

And hasn't been for quite a while. But slow progress of news is better than none....

[JohnFromCensornati]

"I consider myself to be a Christian in a spiritual sense, not in a doctrinal sense. This means my Christianity is defined by values, spiritual practices, and faith rather than belief in a specific set of doctrinal agreements­."
"If the resurrection of Christ didn't literally happen, or if there is no life beyond this one, that has shouldn't have any bearing on whether life now is worth living."

I think that religion is nonsense. It is based on myths and fairytales. These people who claim to be "spiritual" seem to be saying that they somehow "get it" in a way that fundies do not. They even like to call me a fundie, but I'm quite capable of separating the JC message from theJC story. The problem I have with the "spiritual" christian crowd (just like this guy) is that they don't admit that it's a story and more than the fundies do. They are just selective about what they choose to believe (sounds like the fundies to me).
What is it that I'm missing here? Do "spiritual" christians believe that JC was resurrected or not?

[CherokeeGirl]

I can answer that. I guess I'm a spiritual christian because I believe in energy and light and thought, and how thought affects matter. I read once in a Ramtha book (see, I can get "out there") that we aren't really supposed to die. That the pituitary and peneal glands, of which medical science is mystified of their purpose, are supposed to excrete hormones that make death obsolete. Supposedly they open with the "right" kind of thinking, loving and allowing all things. It's a nice thought. Ramtha claims that we can all do what Jesus did and ascend if we raise our vibrational rates high enough so that we become fluid and can travel through space and time in an instant. This is supposed to be the "Super Human" that we are evolving to be and it starts with the Christ Conciousness illuminating in all people. This will bring us into the new world. I think Obama is the beginning of us creating this new world the way we want it to be, but right now we are fighting the old outdated "mechanical universe" thinking.

I do believe that Christ ascended and I believe he got to take his physical body with him when he raised his vibrational rate. Okay, now you all know CherokeeGirl is really a fringe type Christian, but harmless.

[Zanti]

"The problem I have with the 'spiritual' christian crowd (just like this guy) is that they don't admit that it's a story and more than the fundies do."

What blog post did you read? Dr. Nugent calls the stories in question just that--stories. He describes those stories as myths, and he defines what he means by that.

"Do 'spiritual' christians believe that JC was resurrected or not?"

Dr. Nugent, from the interview: "Well, many Christian theologians see the crucifixion and resurrection as a spiritual story rather than a literal one--a story about hope beyond despair, redemption and new life."

A spiritual story rather than a literal one. That's your answer. What did you think he meant?

[JohnFromCensornati]

Obviously, I want him to speak for himself rather use weasel words like "many" christians. For example...

Instead of: "If the resurrection of Christ didn't literally happen, that shouldn't have any bearing on whether life now is worth living or how we live."

Why not: "Since I don't believe that the resurrection of christ literally happened, it shouldn't have any bearing on whether life now is worth living or how we live."?