35. The Fall of Lucifer, part 1


35. The Fall of Lucifer, part 1



For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.
—Isaiah 14:13-14

In our last post, The Fall of Lucifer, part 1, we mentioned a possible parallel with the prophesied downfall of the Babylonian king and the fall of Lucifer. Just where did this idea come from?

The Jewish Encyclopedia sums up the Babylonian myth of Etana:
The brilliancy of the morning star, which eclipses all other stars, but is not seen during the night, may easily have given rise to a myth such as was told of Ethana and Zu: he was led by his pride to strive for the highest seat among the star-gods on the northern mountain of the gods ... but was hurled down by the supreme ruler of the Babylonian Olympus.
The oldest version of this myth dates to over 1000 years before the prophet Isaiah penned this passage, and the newest versions were found in the library of King Ashurbanipal, a contemporary of Isaiah.

So either:
  1. Isaiah is using the Babylonian myth to parallel the fall of the Babylonian king. And Christians later came to believe that the myth described the events of Satan's fall.
  2. The Babylonian myth is describing events known to Noah and his family that had not been written down (or had been written and are now lost), and which then influenced the myths of the cultures that arose post-flood. 
As weak as the second point seems, other connections between Sumerian/Akkadian/Babylonian cultures that we'll explore in future posts may actually make it plausible.  And while I am not dogmatic about it either way, I did draw from the Isaiah passage when writing the revolt scene in Primordium.

So what about motive? Just why would the highest ranking officer, second only to God himself, seek to usurp the throne?

We'll cover that in The Fall of Lucifer, part 2.

Had you heard of the Myth of Etana? Which explanation (1 or 2) above seems more plausible to you? Share your thoughts on the
Blogging His Story Facebook page.

Photo Credit: Public Domain

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