![]() ![]() Texts from Ugarit give a detailed description of the Divine Council's structure of which El and Ba'al are presiding gods. Marduk appears in the Babylonian Enûma Eliš as presiding over a divine council, deciding fates and dispensing divine justice. The leader of the Ancient Egyptian pantheon is considered to either be Thoth or Ra, who were known to hold meetings at Heliopolis (On). In the Old Babylonian pantheon, Samas (or Shamash) and Adad chair the meetings of the divine council. The divine council is led by Anu, Enlil, and Ninlil. One of the first records of a divine council appears in the Lament for Ur, where the pantheon of Annunaki is led by An with Ninhursag and Enlil also appearing as prominent members. The term used in Sumerian to describe this concept was Ukkin, and in later Akkadian and Aramaic was puhru. Their assembly of the gods, headed by the high god Anu, would meet to address various concerns. Some of our most complete descriptions of the activities of the divine assembly are found in the literature from Mesopotamia. Ancient Egyptian literature reveals the existence of a " synod of the gods". The concept of a divine assembly (or council) is attested in the archaic Sumerian, Akkadian, Old Babylonian, Ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Canaanite, Israelite, Celtic, Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman and Nordic pantheons. 500 BC.Ī Divine Council is an assembly of a number of deities over which a higher-level one presides. Side B of an Attic red-figure belly-amphora, ca. Divine council in Olympus: Hermes with his mother Maia, Apollo playing kithara, Dionysos and a maenad. The text tells how the king made a new cultic statue for the god and gave privileges to his temple. Found in Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah), in Ancient Babylonia it dates from the 9th century BC and shows the sun god Shamash on the throne, in front of the Babylonian king Nabu-apla-iddina (888–855 BC) between two interceding deities. ![]() ![]() A meeting of gods on the Tablet of Shamash, British Library room 55. Behind her, a male figure in a kilt holds a curving weapon at his side, and another figure behind Shamash holds the bucket and "sprinkler" associated with fertility. The goddess Lama stands with her hands raised in supplication. The sun disk, nestled in a crescent, floats between the two. The worshiper, in a long robe and cap, offers an animal to the sun-god Shamash, who rests one foot on a stool and holds the saw of justice in his outstretched hand. The Council of Gods (Sketch for the Medici Cycle) No.14, Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Alte Pinakothek This seal depicts a favorite scene of the Old Babylonian period in which a worshiper stands among a number of gods. Engraving by Virgil Solis for Ovid's Metamorphoses Book I, 162–208. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.Assembly of deities over which a higher-level God presides Council of gods before the Deluge. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives. Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. ![]() They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. ![]()
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