Inanna and Ishtar and the Tale of Tammuz

As we move closer to Resurrection Sunday we see more memes about  Ishtar, Nimrod, Semiramis and Tammuz in order to tie the Resurrection of Christ Jesus to pagan myths. 

These are absolute garbage. 

Let me explain: 

   The oldest goddess documented in history was Inanna. Inanna was a the primary and first fertility goddess of the southern Mesopotamia. Her origins are found in Sumer, dating back to 4000 B.C.. Inanna was the original Queen of heaven. She was NEVER called Semiramis. She was the prototype of future goddesses of nomadic people who wanted a Queen of heaven of their own. 

   Inanna had a boyfriend, his name was Dumuzid or Dumuzi in the Sumerian language.  His beginnings are also found in Sumer, dating back to 4000 B.C.. as Inanna and Dumuzid were intimately linked in a romantic relationship. Their popularity and love affair eventually made their way into the Akkadian and Babylonian territories where they were known as Ishtar and Tammuz. 

   Tammuz was the youthful god of pastures and plants. He was not connected to sun worship nor was he ever a sun-god. His father was the primary god Ea or El, his mother was Davkina, mistress of the vine. This is documented in the form of hymns found on Cuneiform Sumerian tablet called the Babylonian Tammuz Lamentations. This tablet is number 15 and is housed in the British museum. 

   The hymns were translated by Frederick A. Vanderburgh in 1906 and placed into a book published in 1908: Sumerian Hymns from Cuneiform Texts in the British Museum. Frederick Augustus Vanderburgh, Columbia University Press, 1908

Pharmakeia In the Last Days

Pharmakeia φαρμακεία is the Greek translation for pharmaceuticals or drugs used in sorcery, witchcraft, magic or magical enchantments. Generally translated as sorcery in the Bible, it is the mixing and use of psychotics in occultic rituals and spell casting. 

  In the Bible, spiritual harlotry is not only defined by the worship of idols or other gods. Harlotry also involves the practice of occultic rituals or seeking out practitioners of the occult: diviners, witches or those who call upon demons in the form of familiar spirits or the spirits of the deceased. Many of these rituals or demon summoning involve the use of pharmaceuticals, psychotics or mind altering drugs. 

   Pharmakeia, in the simplest definition is the intentional use of drugs, hallucinogens, psychotics and poisons in combination with sorcery, witchcraft, enchantments and spells to alter the state of consciousness or inflict harm upon another by the use of toxins. This use of pharmakeia is intentionally inflicted upon oneself or another. It is often considered as mass poisoning or spellbinding. 

   Remember the wicked witch of the West from The Wizard of OZ? She poisoned Dorothy, the lion and Toto with a magic spell. She combined witchcraft and a poison potion mixed in her golden goblet. She then spread this potion over her magic looking glass while chanting, 'Sleep, sleep" This is a silly but effective example of the use of pharmakeia in combination with a magic spell.   

His Church Upon This Rock - Caesarea Philippi

   I found this deeply profound and I just love the historical significance of places like these:  

   There is a rock outcrop that juts out below Mount Hermon (sacred mountain). It is called Caesarea Philippi. It was a place dedicated to the worship of many pagan gods such as Ba’al, the roman goddess Diane and the Greek throwback of the ancient Nephilim, the goat/man god, Pan. 

   Dug into the rock were various arched ledges for the idols of pagan gods and goddesses to sit. Temples were built so patrons could visit and worship various pagan deities, one after the other. 

   The temples had long since vanished but the etchings and ledges are still visible. Pictures: creative commons:  https://vici.org/vici/17872/

   There was a special court area built for the hypnotic flute playing Pan, the dancing goat/man god that chased woodland nymphs for sexual frolic. (Who Alexander Hislop claims was really the first man, Adam in his book The Two Babylons) 

   There was also an area set aside for Pan and the sacred goats and another for Pan and the nymphs. There was a temple for Echo, (the goddess Pan couldn’t catch), a Temple for Zeus and one for the Greek goddess Nemesis. 

The Woman in the Ephah Zechariah 5

    Zechariah 5, Vision #7 the Woman in the Basket.

   The prophet Zechariah was born in Babylon and left with the first remanent freed by Cyrus the Great after 70 years of captivity. In 538 B.C., the second year of Darius the Mede, (who ruled over Babylon since the night Babylon fell to the armies of Cyrus the Great), Zechariah returned to Judah. After a series of failed and forgotten attempts; Zechariah was instrumental in stirring the hearts of the Israeli people to complete the rebuilding of the temple 516 - 515 B.C.. Before the temple could be built, wickedness had to be removed from the land. 

   Yahweh called Zechariah as a messenger to receive visions of prophecies in the year 520 – 519 B.C., twenty years after the fall of Babylon. Zechariah is in Judah when he receives his visions from the angel. 

     Then the angel who was speaking with me went out and said to me, “Lift up now your eyes and see what this is going forth.”  I said, “What is it?” And he said, “This is the ephah going forth (moving, in motion).” Again, he said, “This is their appearance (iniquity) in all the land (and behold, a lead cover was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting inside the ephah.”  Then he said, “This is Wickedness!” And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah and cast the lead weight on its opening. Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there two women were coming out with the wind in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens. I said to the angel who was speaking with me, “Where are they taking the ephah?” Then he said to me, “To build a temple for her in the land of Shinar; and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal.” Zechariah 5:5-11 NASB

   An ephah represents a system of measure; it was a container used to measure volume for dry goods such as barley or fine flour. It was used in commerce and trade for the storing, weighing, buying and selling of dry goods. It wasn’t very big, equal to about a bushel 35 liters or 6 gallons. 

   And I said, what is it? And he said, this is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, this is their resemblance (of wickedness) through all the earth.