Matthew 1

[JLG]

Mesopotamian Education 7)
Curriculum
After a student had mastered the basics of cuneiform script, they practiced writing signs and symbols, then words, then lists of vocabulary words which they would memorize. After these simple lists were mastered, they moved to more complex vocabulary words in various disciplines from astronomy to zoology. Students moved through four stages of instruction, and for each, they used a different type of writing tablet, given here according to scholar A. Leo Oppenheim as presented by Assyriologists Megan Lewis and Joshua Bowen of Digital Hammurabi:

• Type 1: large, multi-column tablets
• Type 2: 2-column instructor-student tablets
• Type 3: 1-column tablets with c. 25% of a composition
• Type 4: 'lentil-shaped' tablets with basic writing

Students began with Type 4 and progressed to Type 1 through the four stages:

• Stage 1: Type 4 Tablet – 'Lentil-shaped' tablets of simple writing exercises designed to teach a student to make proper wedges and signs.
• Stage 2: Type 2 Tablet – The instructor would write on the left side of the tablet and the student would copy that text on the right, often erasing errors – so the right side of the tablets found in the modern era are usually thinner than the left due to loss of clay. The reverse of the tablet held previous lessons of text already completed and memorized.
• Stage 3: Type 3 Tablet – These tablets hold a quarter or more of a long, completed composition that had been memorized.
• Stage 4: Type 1 Tablet – Complete compositions created from memory and demonstrating mastery of cuneiform script and subject matter.

The curriculum relied on proverbs, in all four stages, to teach students proper vocabulary, form, grammar, style, and interpretation. Ashurbanipal's collection of Sumerian and Babylonian proverbs, found in his library at Nineveh, include many that appear in the homework of students from the scribal schools. Proverbs were especially emphasized in the early years of one's education in preparation for the advanced stages of the Tetrad (four compositions) and Decad (ten compositions) that needed to be mastered, along with even more advanced works, before one could graduate.

 

[JLG]

Mesopotamian Education 8)
Tetrad, Decad & House F Compositions
These works were discovered in numerous copies in the ruins of the scribal school at Nippur, designated by archaeologists as House F. Scholar Jeremy Black comments:
The House F literary tablets are strikingly representative of the Sumerian literary corpus as a whole. That is partly because they have deeply influenced our notions of what that representative corpus is; and partly because they originate from Nippur, where nineteenth-century American digs had already uncovered the vast bulk of known Sumerian literature…Nippur was also at the intellectual heart of Sumer, as the home of Enlil, father of the gods, and geographically close to its core. (xliii-xliv)
Although, as Black also notes, Mesopotamian literature was more diverse than the collection found at Nippur suggests, the same core curriculum works of the Tetrad and Decad found there have been unearthed elsewhere. These works, as given by scholar Eleanor Robson, are:
Tetrad:

• Lipit-Estar Hymn B
• Iddin-Dagan Hymn B
• Enlil-bani Hymn A
• Hymn to Nisaba (Nisaba A)

Decad:

• A Praise Poem of Shulgi (Shulgi A)
• A Praise Poem of Lipit-Estar (Lipit-Estar A)
• Song of the Hoe
• Hymn to Inanna B (Exaltation of Inanna)
• Enlil in the E-kur (Enlil A)
• Kesh Temple Hymn
• Enki's Journey to Nippur
• Inanna and Ebih
• Hymn to Nungal (Nungal A)
• Gilgamesh and Huwawa (Version A)

 

[JLG]

Mesopotamian Education 9)
The works of the Tetrad were more difficult than the proverbs and other pieces students had mastered earlier, and those of the Decad were even more advanced. The other compositions found in House F (known as The House F Fourteen) were even more complex and the last works a student needed to master prior to graduation:

• Edubba B
• Edubba C (A Supervisor's Advice to a Young Scribe)
• Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld
• Deeds and Exploits of Ninurta
• The Curse of Agade
• Shulgi Hymn B
• Ur Lament
• The Instructions of Shuruppag
• Edubba A (Schooldays)
• The Debate Between Sheep and Grain
• Dumuzid's Dream
• Farmer's Instructions
• Edubba Dialogue I
• The Debate Between Hoe and Plough

By the time one had mastered these compositions – which meant copying, memorizing, and reciting each one – the student was recognized as a scribe and focused on their area of interest (comparable to one's major in college) and then began their career.

 

[JLG]

Mesopotamian Education 10)
Bertman comments:
The goal of this educational system was to turn a child into a scribe. When grown up, the graduate of the Mesopotamian school system would be able to serve society by taking his place in the worlds of temple, palace, and business, drawing upon his skills in literacy and numeracy to excel at his job. Some might become professional scribes serving the practical needs of others; but others would follow their father's professions as government or temple officials or as businessmen. (303)
- Turn a child into a scribe!

 

[JLG]

Mesopotamian Education 11)
The student's life in pursuing this goal, however, was not an easy one. The satirical poem Schooldays describes this life which included rising early and getting to school on time, the work involved, and the daily beatings the student might expect for infractions of rules, including talking in class, leaving the grounds without permission, tardiness, rising from one's seat without permission, or failing to produce clean copy (not having a "good hand"), among others. A Supervisor's Advice to a Young Scribe is another satirical work on student life in which the young scribe is depicted as essentially the slave of his teacher until graduation.
- Rising early!
- Getting to school on time!
- Daily beatings for infractions of rules (talking in class, leaving the grounds without permission, tardiness, rising from one's seat without permission, or failing to produce clean copy…)!

 

[JLG]

Mesopotamian Education 12)
Scribal Jobs & Works
Once graduated, however, the scribe was recognized as an elite member of society, known as a dub.sar ("tablet writer") in Sumerian and a tupshar (or tupsharru) in Akkadian. There was no lack of opportunity for a scribe as work was guaranteed at every level of society. Scribes were employed by the palace for administrative and diplomatic work as well as for the composition of songs, hymns, and inscriptions praising the king and recording his accomplishments. The temple employed scribes in administration and copying of sacred texts, and businesses employed scribes to keep their accounts and carry on correspondence with suppliers and customers.
Aside from these opportunities, scribes worked as architects, in construction, as engineers, astronomers and astrologers, brewers, doctors, dentists, surveyors, mathematicians, musicians, or any other career requiring literacy and a high degree of education. Scribes could also work for themselves as freelance writers in service to anyone who paid them for their work. A scribe could be hired by anyone who needed a letter or legal complaint written.
- The scribe was recognized as an elite member of society!
- There were plenty of work opportunities!

 

[JLG]

Mesopotamian Education 13)
Scribes in ancient Mesopotamia created some of the most important works in world literature, including The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Descent of Inanna, and established genres still in use today as exemplified by The Instructions of Shuruppag (the oldest extant philosophical work), the Kesh Temple Hymn (the oldest extant work of literature, c. 2600 BCE), literary dialogues such as The Debate Between Bird and Fish, social commentaries like the Poor Man of Nippur and the Dialogue of Pessimism, dramatic monologues like The Home of the Fish, didactic works such as Inanna and Su-kale-tuda, and hymns like Shulgi and Ninlil's Barge or Hymn to Ninkasi which is both praise song and a recipe for brewing beer. These scribes are also credited with creating the world's first historical fiction through the genre known as Mesopotamian naru literature and setting down the first laws such as the Code of Ur-Nammu and the Code of Hammurabi.

 

[JLG]

Mesopotamian Education 14)
Conclusion
The Akkadian priestess-poet Enheduanna (l. 2285-2250 BCE), the first author in the world known by name, learned her craft in the Mesopotamian scribal school, as did the Babylonian scribe Shin-Leqi-Unninni (wrote 1300-1000 BCE), who drew on earlier Sumerian poems to craft the standard version of The Epic of Gilgamesh. The names of most scribes, however, are unknown as their pieces would be defined today as work-made-for-hire, commissioned by their employer for a given purpose, not for self-expression, and attributed to the person who paid for it or published anonymously.
These nameless scribes, however, were ultimately responsible for the preservation of Mesopotamian languages, religion, and culture, and there were two famous monarchs – Shulgi of Ur (r. 2029-1982 BCE) of the Ur III Dynasty and Ashurbanipal of the Neo-Assyrian Empire – who understood this clearly. Shulgi of Ur not only encouraged the establishment of scribal schools throughout his kingdom but commissioned works for the express purpose of immortalizing his reign. Ashurbanipal sent delegations throughout Mesopotamia to bring back written works for the permanent collection of his library to preserve the culture "for distant days" – which, in fact, he succeeded in doing – and this was only possible due to the establishment and development of the Mesopotamian scribal school.

 

[JLG]

Garee said:

Which religion of who?

The religion of lying signs and wonder as if true prophecy?

The Holy Father In James puts his stamp of approval on his own religious belief system Believers were without our heavenly Father as widows not married to Christ.

James 1:27;Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

The religion of the special care of the household of faith (the non-visible eternal things of God .

Eohsians 2:19;Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

Galatians 6:10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

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My answer:

- According to the Bible, the majority of mankind was destroyed except Noah and his family!

- According to the Bible, only two Hebrews got into the promised land, the rest died in the desert!

- According to the Bible, Jerusalem was destroyed twice and many died or became slaves or were sent into exile!

- Think about Revelation 13:16,17:

The Mark of the Beast

16 And the second beast required all people small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead,17 so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark—the name of the beast or the number of its name.

- Think about revelation 19:1,2:

1 After this I heard a sound like the roar of a great multitude in heaven, shouting:

“Hallelujah!

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God!

2 For His judgments are true and just.

He has judged the great prostitute

who corrupted the earth with her immorality.

- We are told about the earth!

- Think about the 1,000 years!

- Revelation 20:7:

7 When the thousand years are complete, Satan will be released from his prison,8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to assemble them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the seashore.

- We are told about people who are like the sand of the seashore!

- Now when you look at the history of religion, what do we learn?

- We look at the flood and the survival of Noah and his family!

- Then what is next? (Genesis chapter 10:6-12)

- We get the son of Noah, Ham!

- One of his sons was Cush!

- One of Cush's sons was Nimrod!

- Only two generations after the flood and here is Nimrod!

- And Nimrod built many cities and in particular Babel, Accad and Niniveh!

- It was the beginning of human civilization!

- And they developed religion, astrology and astronomy!

- Each city has its own god!

- Everything was organized around religion!

- And in fact it was the same structure as before the flood, religion made by demons who wanted to control men according to their own will!

- Then each civilization took the beliefs of the preceding civilization and adapted them till today!

- The Hebrews were warned by Yah.weh but they didn't listen!

- They mixed their religion with other religions!

- They were destroyed!

- Human history is just a mere repetition!