Marduk

Illustration of Marduk

**Marduk**, also known as **Bel**, was the national god of Babylon, who would eventually become, with the rise of the city, the head of the Mesopotamian pantheon.

## Overview

### Enūma Eliš

Marduk is the central figure within *Enūma Eliš*, the Babylonian creation-myth. According to this story, Marduk is the son Ea, god of wisdom and the subterranean water, and grandson of Anu, the god of the sky. Eventually Anunnaki and Igigi (the major groups of Mesopotamian deities) get into a fight with Tiamat, the goddess and personification of the chaotic sea and ancestor to all gods, and Kingu, he consort, who was also armed with the Tablets of Destiny. Many deities (including Ea and Anu) are sent to defeat the ancient goddess, but all are terrified of her. Eventually Marduk, as the brightest and faired of the gods, is chosen, and he agrees to this, if he gets to be the king of the gods after this. The other gods agree and equip him for his mission with wisdom and weapons.

Marduk goes to to face Tiamat, Kingu and the hordes of demons, monsters and evil gods that serve, and manages to defeat them all with his godly powers. He kills Tiamat by allowing himself to be swallowed by her and pierces her heard with a spear while being inside the goddess. With Tiamat killed, all her followers scatter, but Marduk captures them and ties most of them to his foot. Marduk also takes the Tablets of Destiny from Kingu officially making him the head of the pantheon, as he now controlled the fates of everything.

Marduk would then also take the corpse of Tiamat and fashion the world out of it, everything from the heavens, the earth, the underworld, as well as the rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates. He also orders the stations of all the other deities, and decided to create humanity to work the earth on behalf of the gods and to create the various religious cults for the gods (a common motive in Mesopotamian mythology). The humans are created out mud and the blood of Kingu, who was sentenced to death for siding with Tiamat agains the gods.

In the end Babylon, the city over which Marduk presides, is built, and the gods take residence there and the fifty names of Marduk are also listed now.

## Religious belief

### Connection to other gods

Marduk rose to prominence with the rise of Babylon in the 18th century BC, during the times of Hammurabi. He absorbed the roles of several other deities, such as An, the god of the sky, Enlil, the god o the wind, Enki, the god wisdom, and Utu, the god of the sun and justice, and sometimes many of the other gods were seen as just aspects of Marduk. He would also be seen as the father Nabu, the god of writing and scribes, as well as the patron of the city of Borsippa.

Marduk notably inherited a lot of aspects from Ninurta, an earlier Mesopotamian god associated with farming, healing, hunting, law, scribes, and war. The Ninurta's battle with the Anzû-bird is speculated to be a basis for Marduk's battle with Tiamat, and is also connected to later myths and religions, such as Baal's battle with Yamm, the Hittite storm-god's battle against Illuyanka, Zeus' many battles in the Theogony, YHWH's battle against Leviathan, Azazel, Semyaza & Satan, the Son of Man in the Book of Daniel and even aspects in the Christian gospels.

Overtime the rituals, imagery and myths of Marduk would transferred over to Ashur, the national god of Assyria, when they became a more prominent civilisation in Ancient Near East during the reign Sennacherib in the 8th and 7th century BCE. This included Enūma Eliš and the killing of Tiamat. Much like Marduk, Ashur would also take imagery from other important deities, like Enlil and Shamash.

### Imagery of Marduk

Marduk was associated with the heavenly body of Nibiru (Jupiter), and he was often depicted carrying a marru, triangular-headed hoe or shovel, a spear or lighting. He was often also depicted with a mušḫuššu, a dragon-like chimera, whom he had dominion over (likely as a reference to him besting Tiamat. His son Nabu and Adad, the god of storms and the weather, were also often depicted with these creatures. He would also be known with his the title of **Bel**, which meant Lord (similar to storm-god Baal from the Levant).

### Marduk in exorcism

In ancient Mesopotamian cultures, like most others, both physical and mental was often attributed to the work of evil spirits and demons, such as the gallu-spirits of the underworld. Marduk, alongside other gods, such as his father Ea and Asalluhi, was one of the prominent deities invoked in the practice of exorcising these evil spirits out of people.

### Marduk in the Bible

Marduk is also mentioned in the Bible:

> Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low; their idols are borne by beasts of burden. The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary. They stoop and bow down together; unable to rescue the burden, they themselves go off into captivity.
>
> Isaiah 46:1-2

> I will punish Marduk, the god of Babylon, and make him vomit up everything he gobbled down. Then nations will no longer bring him gifts, and Babylon’s walls will crumble.
>
> Jeremiah 51:44-46

## Counterparts

* Enlil (Sumerian)
* Ashur (Assyrian)
* Baal (Semitic)
* Zeus, Apollo (Greek)
* Amun, Horus (Egyptian)
* Ahura Mazda (Zoroastrian)
* Indra (Vedic)

## References

1. ↑ Abusch, Tzvi, *Marduk* (p.543), in Toorn, Karel van der; Bob Becking; Pieter W. van der Horst. *Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible*
2. ↑ King, Leonard William. Enūma Eliš. Internent Sacred Text Archive
3. ↑ King, Leonard William. Enūma Eliš. Internent Sacred Text Archive
4. ↑ King, Leonard William. Enūma Eliš. Internent Sacred Text Archive
5. ↑ King, Leonard William. Enūma Eliš. Internent Sacred Text Archive
6. ↑ Seri, Andrea. *The Fifty Names of Marduk in Enūma eliš*
7. ↑ Black, Jeremy A. & Green, Anthony. *Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary*
8. ↑ Tenney, Jon. *The Elevation of Marduk Revisited: Festivals and Sacrifices at Nippur during the High Kassite Period*
9. ↑ Black, Jeremy A. *The New Year Ceremonies in Ancient Babylon: 'Taking Bel by the Hand' and a Cultic Picnic*
10. ↑ Annus, Amar. *Ninurta and the Son of Man*
11. ↑ Dempsey, Brendan Graham. *The Combat Myth According to Mark: From Ancient Near Eastern Genre to Apocalyptic Gospel*
12. ↑ Hendel, Ron. *Aniconism and Anthropomorphism in Ancient Israel*
13. ↑ Noegel, Scott B. *Greek Religion and the Ancient Near East*
14. ↑ Tamtik, Svetlana. *Enuma Elish: The Origins of Its Creation*
15. ↑ Black, Jeremy A. & Green, Anthony. *Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary*
16. ↑ Maul, Stefan M. *Marduk, Nabû und der assyrische Enlil. Die Geschichte eines sumerischen Šu\'ilas*
17. ↑ Stanhope, Ben. *(Mis)interpreting Genesis: How the Creation Museum Misunderstands the Ancient Near Eastern Context of the Bible*
18. ↑ Annus, Aamr. *The Spiritual Dimensions of Healing Rituals in Ancient Mesopotamia*