goddesses were present. The Mother Goddess went on working while incantations were constantly recited. Then she shouted in
triumph:
"I have created!
My hands have made it!"
She "summoned the Anunnaki, the Great Gods . . . she opened her mouth, addressed the Great Gods":
"You commanded me a task -
I have completed it. ...
I have removed your heavy work
I have imposed your toil on The Worker, 'Man.'
You raised a cry for a Worker-kind:
I have loosed the yoke,
I have provided your freedom."
The Anunnaki received her announcement enthusiastically. "They ran together and kissed her feet." From then on it would be the Primitive Worker - Man - "who will bear the yoke."
The Nefilim, having arrived on Earth to set up their colonies, had created their own brand of slavery, not with slaves imported from another continent, but with Primitive Workers fashioned by the Nefilim themselves. A mutiny of the gods had led to the creation of Man. THE CREATION OF MAN
THE ASSERTION, first recorded and transmitted by the Sumerians, that "Man" was created by the Nefilim, appears at first sight to clash both with the theory of evolution and with the Judeo-Christian tenets based on the Bible. But in fact, the information contained in the Sumerian texts - and only that information - can affirm both the validity of the theory of evolution and the truth of the biblical tale - and show that there really is no conflict at all between the two.
In the epic "When the gods as men," in other specific texts, and in passing references, the Sumerians described Man as both a deliberate creature of the gods and a link in the evolutionary chain that began with the celestial events described in the "Epic of Creation." Holding firm to the belief that the creation of Man was preceded by an era during which only the Nefilim were upon Earth, the Sumerian texts recorded instance after instance (for example, the incident between Enlil and Ninlil) of events that had taken place "when Man had not yet been created, when Nippur was inhabited by the gods alone." At the same time, the texts also described the creation of Earth and the development of plant and animal life upon it, in terms that conform to the current evolutionary theories.
The Sumerian texts state that when the Nefilim first came to Earth, the arts of grain cultivation, fruit planting, and cattle raising had not yet extended to Earth. The biblical account likewise places the creation of Man in the sixth "day" or phase of the evolutionary process. The Book of Genesis, too, asserts that at an earlier evolutionary stage:
No plant of the cleared field was yet on Earth, No herb that is planted had yet been grown. . . . And Man was not yet there to work the soil.
All the Sumerian texts assert that the gods created Man to do their work. Putting the explanation in words uttered by Marduk, the
Creation epic reports the decision:
I will produce a lowly Primitive;
"Man" shall be his name.
I will create a Primitive Worker;
He will be charged with the service of the gods,
that they might have their ease.
The very terms by which the Sumerians and Akkadians called "Man" bespoke his status and purpose: He was a lulu ("primitive"), a lulu amelu ("primitive worker"), an awihim ("laborer"). That Man was created to be a servant of the gods did not strike the ancient peoples as a peculiar idea at all. In biblical times, the deity was "Lord," "Sovereign," "King," "Ruler," "Master." The term that is commonly translated as "worship" was in fact avod ("work"). Ancient and biblical Man did not "worship" his god; he worked for him.
No sooner had the biblical Deity, like the gods in Sumerian accounts, created Man, than he planted a garden and assigned Man to work there:
And the Lord God took the "Man" and placed him in the garden of Eden to till it and to tend it.
Later on, the Bible describes the Deity "strolling in the garden in the breeze of the day," now that the new being was there to tend the Garden of Eden. How far is this version from the Sumerian texts that describe how the gods clamored for workers so that they could rest and relax?
In the Sumerian versions, the decision to create Man was adopted by the gods in their Assembly. Significantly, the Book of
Genesis - purportedly exalting the achievements of a sole Deity - uses the plural Elohim (literally, "deities") to denote "God," and
reports an astonishing remark:
And Elohim said:
"Let us make Man in our image,
after our likeness."
Whom did the sole but plural Deity address, and who were the "us" in whose plural image and plural likeness Man was to be made? The Book of Genesis does not provide the answer. Then, when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowing, Elohim issued a warning to the same unnamed colleagues: "Behold, Man has become as one of us, to know good and evil." Since the biblical story of Creation, like the other tales of beginnings in Genesis, stems from Sumerian origins, the answer is obvious. Condensing the many gods into a single Supreme Deity, the biblical tale is but an edited version of the Sumerian reports of the discussions in the Assembly of the Gods.
The Old Testament took pains to make clear that Man was neither a god nor from the heavens. "The Heavens are the Heavens of the Lord, unto Mankind Earth He hath given." The new being was called "the Adam" because he was created of the adama,
the Earth's soil. He was, in other words, "the Earthling."
Lacking only certain "knowing" and a divine span of life, the Adam was in all other respects created in the image (selem) and likeness (dmut) of his Creator(s). The use of both terms in the text was meant to leave no doubt that Man was similar to the God(s) both physically and emotionally, externally and internally.
In all ancient pictorial depictions of gods and men, this physical likeness is evident. Although the biblical admonition against the worship of pagan images gave rise to the notion that the Hebrew God had neither image nor likeness, not only the Genesis tale but other biblical reports attest to the contrary. The God of the ancient Hebrews could be seen face-to-face, could be wrestled with, could be heard and spoken to; he had a head and feet, hands and fingers, and a waist. The biblical God and his emissaries looked like men and acted like men - because men were created to look like and act like the gods. But in this very simplicity lies a great mystery. How could a new creature possibly be a virtual physical, mental, and emotional replica of the Nefilim? How, indeed, was Man created?
The Western world was long wedded to the notion that, created deliberately, Man was put upon Earth to subdue it and have dominion over all other creatures. Then, in November 1859, an English naturalist by the name of Charles Darwin published a treatise called On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. Summing up nearly thirty years of research, the book added to earlier thoughts about natural evolution the concept of natural selection as a consequence of the struggle of all species - of plant and animal alike - for existence. The Christian world had been jostled earlier when, from 1788 on, noted geologists had begun to express their belief that Earth was of great antiquity, much, much greater than the roughly 5,500 years of the Hebrew calendar. Nor was the concept of evolution as such the explosive: Earlier scholars had noted such a process, and Greek scholars as far back as the fourth century B.C. compiled data on the evolution of animal and plant life.
Darwin's shattering bombshell was the conclusion that all living things - Man included - were products of evolution. Man, contrary to the then-held belief, was not generated spontaneously.
The initial reaction of the Church was violent. But as the scientific facts regarding Earth's true age, evolution, genetics, and other biological and anthropological studies came to light, the Church's criticism was muted. It seemed at last that the very words of the Old Testament made the tale of the Old Testament indefensible; for how could a God who has no corporal body and who is universally alone say,
"Let us make Man in our image, after our likeness?"
But are we really nothing more than "naked apes"? Is I lie monkey just an evolutionary arm's length away from us, and the tree shrew just a human who has yet to lose his tail and stand erect?
As we showed at the very beginning of this book, modern scientists have come to question the simple theories. Evolution can explain the general course of events that caused life and life's forms to develop on Earth, from the simplest one-celled creature to Man. But evolution cannot account for the appearance of Homo sapiens, which happened virtually overnight in terms of the millions of years evolution requires, and with no evidence of earlier stages that would indicate a gradual change from Homo erectus.
The hominid of the genus Homo is a product of evolution. But Homo sapiens is the product of some sudden, revolutionary event. He appeared inexplicably some 300,000 years ago, millions of years too soon.
The scholars have no explanation. But we do. The Sumerian and Babylonian texts do. The Old Testament does. Homo sapiens - modern Man - was brought about by the ancient gods.
The Mesopotamian texts, fortunately, provide a clear statement regarding the time when Man was created. The story of the toil
and ensuing mutiny of the Anunnaki informs us that "for 40 periods they suffered the work, day and night"; the long years of their
toil are dramatized by repetitious verses.
For 10 periods they suffered the toil;
For 20 periods they suffered the toil;
For 30 periods they suffered the toil;
For 40 periods they suffered the toil.
The ancient text uses the term ma to denote "period," and most scholars have translated this as "year." But the term had the
connotation of "something that completes itself and then repeats itself." To men on Earth, one year equals one complete orbit of
Earth around the Sun. As we have already shown, the orbit of the Nefilim's planet equaled a shar, or 3,600 Earth years.
Forty shars, or 144,000 Earth years, after their landing, the Anunnaki protested, "No more!" If the Nefilim first landed on Earth,
as we have concluded, some 450,000 years ago, then the creation of Man took place some 300,000 years ago!
The Nefilim did not create the mammals or the primates or the hominids. "The Adam" of the Bible was not the genus Homo, but
the being who is our ancestor - the first Homo sapiens. It is modern Man as we know him that the Nefilim created.
The key to understanding this crucial fact lies in the tale of a slumbering Enki, aroused to be informed that the gods had decided
to form an adamu, and that it was his task to find the means. He replied:
"The creature whose name you uttered - IT EXISTS1"
and he added: "Bind upon it" - on the creature that already exists - "the image of the gods."
Here, then, is the answer to the puzzle: The Nefilim did not "create" Man out of nothing; rather, they took an existing creature and manipulated it, to "bind upon it" the "image of the gods."
Man is the product of evolution; but modern Man, Homo sapiens, is the product of the "gods." For, some time circa 300,000
years ago, the Nefilim took ape-man (Homo erectus) and implanted on him their own image and likeness.
Evolution and the Near Eastern tales of Man's creation are not at all in conflict. Rather, they explain and complement each other.
For without the creativity of the Nefilim, modern Man would still be millions years away on the evolutionary tree.
Let us transport ourselves back in time, and try to visualize the circumstances and the events as they unfolded.
The great interglacial stage that began about 435,000 years ago, and its warm climate, brought about a proliferation of food and
animals. It also speeded up the appearance and spread of an advanced manlike ape, Homo erectus.
As the Nefilim looked about them, they saw not only the predominant mammals but also the primates - among them the manlike apes. Is it not possible that the roaming bands of Homo erectus were lured to come close to observe the fiery objects rising to the sky? Is it not possible that the Nefilim observed, encountered, even captured some of these interesting primates?
That the Nefilim and the manlike apes did meet is attested to by several ancient texts. A Sumerian tale dealing with the
primordial times states:
When Mankind was created,
They knew not the eating of bread,
Knew not the dressing in garments;
Ate plants with their mouth like sheep;
Drank water from a ditch.
Such an animal-like "human" being is also described in the "Epic of Gilgamesh." That text tells what Enkidu, the one "born on
the steppes," was like before he became civilized:
Shaggy with hair is his whole body,
he is endowed with head-hair like a woman. . . .
He knows neither people nor land;
Garbed he is like one of the green fields;
With gazelles he feeds on grass;
With the wild beasts he jostles
at the watering place;
With the teeming creatures in the water
his heart delights.
Not only does the Akkadian text describe an animal-like man; it also describes an encounter with such a being:
Now a hunter, one who traps,
faced him at the watering place.
When the hunter saw him,
his face became motionless. ...
His heart was disturbed, overclouded his face,
for woe had entered his belly.
There was more to it than mere fear after the hunter beheld "the savage," this "barbarous fellow from the depths of the steppe"; for this "savage" also interfered with the hunter's pursuits:
He filled the pits that I had dug, he tore up my traps which I had set; the beasts and creatures of the steppe he has made slip through my hands.
We can ask for no better description of an ape-man: hairy, shaggy, a roaming nomad who "knows neither people nor land," garbed in leaves, 'like one of the green fields," feeding on grass, and living among the animals. Yet he is not without substantial intelligence, for he knows how to tear up the traps and fill up the pits dug to catch the animals. In other words, he protected his animal friends from being caught by the alien hunters. Many cylinder seals have been found that depict this shaggy ape-man among his animal friends.
Then, faced with the need for manpower, resolved to obtain a Primitive Worker, the Nefilim saw a ready-made solution: to domesticate a suitable animal.
The "animal" was available - but Homo erectus posed a problem. On the one hand, he was too intelligent and wild to become simply a docile beast of work. On the other hand, he was not really suited to the task. His physique had to be changed - he had to be able to grasp and use the tools of the Nefilim, walk and bend like them so that he could replace the gods in the fields and in the mines. He had to have better "brains" - not like those of the gods but enough to understand speech and commands and the tasks allotted to him. He needed enough cleverness and understanding to be an obedient and useful amelu - a serf. If, as the ancient evidence and modern science seem to confirm, life on Earth germinated from life on the Twelfth Planet, then evolution on Earth should have proceeded as it had on the Twelfth Planet. Undoubtedly there were mutations, variations, accelerations, and retardations caused by different local conditions; but the same genetic codes, the same "chemistry of life" found in all living plants and animals on Earth would also have guided the development of life forms on Earth in the same general direction as on the Twelfth Planet.
Observing the various forms of life on Earth, the Nefilintl and their chief scientist, Ea, needed little time to realize! what had happened: During the celestial collision, their planet had seeded Earth with its life. Therefore, the being, that was available was really akin to the Nefilim - though* in a less evolved form.
A gradual process of domestication th
rough generations of breeding and selection would not do. What was needed was a quick process, one that would permit "mass' production" of the new workers. So the problem was • posed to Ea, who saw the answer at once: to "imprint" the image of the gods on the being that already existed.
The process that Ea recommended in order to achieve a quick evolutionary advancement of Homo erectus was, we believe, genetic manipulation.
We now know that the complex biological process whereby a living organism reproduces itself, creating progeny that resemble their parents, is made possible by the genetic code. All living organisms - a threadworm, a fern tree, or Man - contain in their cells chromosomes, minute rodlike bodies within each cell that hold the complete hereditary instructions for that particular organism. } As the male cell (pollen, sperm) fertilizes the female cell, the two sets of chromosomes combine and then divide to form new cells that hold the complete hereditary characteristics of their parent cells.
Artificial insemination, even of a female human egg, is now possible. The real challenge lies in cross-fertilization between different families within the same species, and even between different species. Modern science has come a long way from the development of the first hybrid corns, or the mating of Alaskan dogs with wolves, or the "creation" of the mule (the artificial mating of a mare and a donkey), to the ability to manipulate Man's own reproduction.
A process called cloning (from the Greek word klon -"twig") applies to animals the same principle as that of I taking a cutting from a plant to reproduce hundreds of 'similar plants. The technique as applied to animals was first demonstrated in England, where Dr. John Gurdon replaced the nucleus of a fertilized frog's egg with the nuclear material from another cell of the same frog. The successful formation of normal tadpoles demonstrated that the egg proceeds to develop and subdivide and create progeny no matter where it obtains the correct set of matching chromosomes.
Experiments reported by the Institute of Society, Ethics land Life Sciences at Hastings-on-Hudson, show that techniques already exist for cloning human beings. It is now possible to take the nuclear material of any human cell not necessarily from the sex organs and, by introducing its twenty-three sets of complete chromosomes into the female ovum, lead to the conception and birth of a "pre-determined" individual. In normal conception, "father" and "mother" chromosome sets merge and then must split to remain at twenty-three chromosome pairs, leading to chance combinations. But in cloning the offspring is an exact replica of the source of the unsplit set of chromosomes. We already possess, wrote Dr. W. Gaylin in The New York Times, the "awful knowledge to make exact copies of human beings" - a limitless number of Hitlers or Mozarts or Einsteins (if we had preserved their cell nuclei).
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