Another story is about King of Persia Cyrus who invades Lydia. King Croesus of Lydia has claims to holiness. Cyrus decides to test his claims and starts burning him on a pile of wood. Suddenly Cyrus feels regret but can not put out the fire, and starts praying to Apollo to save Croesus from burning. Water pours down from the cloudless sky, puts out the fire and Croesus was saved. Cyrus believed in the holiness of Croesus.

One more story is from 2500 years ago when Magi were living in western Persia. Zarathustra was born to one of the royal families of the Magi. One of the magicians said that this child would grow up and destroy the Magi. When Zarathustra was two years of age he is thrown into fire. His mother came and saw his son unburnt and playing with fire.

What do we find when we look up for Nimrod in the reference sources? Encyclopedias date this mythical Nimrod (who most probably never lived) to 2450 BC. Abraham, another mythical person (if he ever lived) must have been alive somewhere in between 1900-1750 BC. There are two 'unknowns' already. That is not all! There is a difference of about 500 years between them, which makes further discussion on this story pointless. Verdict: Just another creation by mankind. The event is impossible to have taken place.

RELIGION OF ABRAHAM AND JUDAISM

Judaism is the oldest of the religions based on revelation (message). Its history is older than 4000 years. Its origins could be identified in the religion of Abram (Abraham). Followers of Judaism believe that they are one people; chosen by God to be an example of light and love to all mankind, and guided by an ethical monotheism whose foundations were laid in the time of the Patriarchs and elaborated through the Torah - the divine teachings as revealed to Moses. The heart of the jewish faith is the belief in one God, the creator and ruler of all.

ABRAHAM'S FAMILY

As a result of the famine in the land Abram takes his family to Egypt. He was 90 years old. Abram's wife is beautiful, and in order to prevent Egyptians take her away from him and kill him, he presents his wife as her sister. Pharaoh takes her as his wife. But God sends all kinds of plagues to Pharaoh and the land, that Pharaoh has to return the wife with presents to Abram and sends them away. There is no explanation in the Old Testament. But the story is treated extensively in one of the Qumran texts, and in an explanatory fashion. In addition to the details we know there is an explanation as to why he peresented his wife as his sister. Abram sees a dream one night. His wife interprets the dream: She would present herself as the sister of Abram in order to save his life. This story is written on gazelle skin dated to 50 BC.-50 AD. When we start off with this Qumran text we find traces of the sacred marriage ceremonies, and the ceremonies of the new year; and the abundance brought about by the fertility cult which all make up the Sumerian fertility cult. Sumerian story is as follows: Inanna is married to Dumuzi. A while later she visits her sister - the Goddess of the nether-world. There she was told that she would not be permitted to leave without leaving someone as her substitute. Her husband - Dumuzi - is not sad due to her absence. Learning this Inanna requests the nether-world jinns to take Dumuzi as her substitute. Dumuzi runs away, and sees a dream while sleeping in the country. One of a couple of reeds side by side is uprooted. He tells this dream to his sister which is the Goddess of dreams. She interprets the dream as her brother (Dumuzi) would be taken away again and she would be sad because of this. Dumuzi is taken away. Her sister, manages to get the assembly of Gods to accept her as the substitute for Dumuzi for half a year. Thus Dumuzi and her sister alternate for half a year in staying in the underworld. Every time Dumuzi comes up out of the underworld, he is united with her wife, the new year begins, abundance follows. The ruling king that year and the priestess symbolize this event by getting married among celebrations. The similarities between the stories of Inanna and Sarai are as follows:

1. Both Inanna and Sarai are beautiful.

2. Abram dreams of one of the two trees uprooted; and Dumuzi dreams one of the two reeds uprooted.

3. Abram's wife interprets the dream and says Abram would be killed; Dumuzi's dream is interpreted by his sister who says that Dumuzi would be taken to the nether-world.

4. In order to save Abram, his wife goes to the Pharaoh for two years; Dumuzi's sister descends to the underworld for half a year to save Dumuzi.

Marriage of Sarai to Pharaoh is parallel to the marriage of priestess to the king, as a consequence of which abundance is brought to the land of Sumer. The marriage between the Pharaoh and Sarai brings wealth to Abram and his brother Lot.

Thanks to the research done by the distinguished Turkish Sumerologist M.İ Çığ, this new and extremely important dimension has been established for the first time (Prophet Abraham, Muazzez İlmiye Çığ, Turkey,1997). Çığ points out also the similarities between the Abraham-Sarai story and the Kret myth of the Ugarit.

ANOTHER STORY ADOPTED FROM SUMER

LEWD STORIES…

In Genesis 24 we are told the story about Abraham asking his slave to go to his (Abraham's) native country and find a bride for his (Abraham's) son Isaac. Slave goes to the country of Abraham's brother Nachor. There he sees and chooses Rebekah, who is 'the daughter of Betuel, the son of Nachor's wife Milka.' He brings Rebekah riding a camel and acompanied by lots of camels (But there is something wrong here. Archaeological finds have proven that camels were still not domesticated then). Isaac marries Rebekah and Abraham marries a slave named Keturah. Since Sarah was 127 years old when she died, Abraham must be 137. Despite his very old age he marries Keturah; Keturah gives her more children. Who in his sound mind could believe this nonsense? Rebekah puts on her veil covers herself when he meets her would-be husband Isaac. What is this? According to the story in Genesis 38:14-18 only harlots covered their faces. Here is the story: Tamar is Judah's daughter-in-law. When Tamar's husband Er (son of Judah) was killed by the God, Judah wanted his second son Onan to take Tamar as wife. Onan married Tamar but 'spilled his seed on the ground' (He performed coitus interruptus), upon which God was displeased and he slew Onan. So Tamar is left alone. Judah tells her to go to her father's house as a widow, until his (Judah's) son Shelah is grown. Tamar goes to her father's house and starts living there. Time comes and Judah's wife dies. Judah goes to Timnath. Tamar hears this, takes off her widow's garments, covers her with a vail/veil and wraps herself. She sits in an open place on the way to Timnath. She has seen that Shelah was grown and she was not given to him as wife. Judah sees her, thinks her to be a harlot 'because she covered her face,' they reach a deal and make love. When Judah learns that the woman is pregnant, orders her to be killed by burning. But when he learns that the child is from him the matter is closed. So, why did Rebekah feel the need to cover her? The covering of the head and face is an old story originating from Sumer. There the sacred prostitutes belonging to the Temple had to cover themselves out of Temple grounds to show that they belonged to the Temple, performing a divine duty, and should not be bothered. This is another riddle for you. Leviticus ('The third Book of Moses') 20:21 rules: "If a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he has uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless." So what Judah wanted, and what his son Onan did was against the Mosaic Law. The tradition which is the origin of this event is formulated in the Article 193 of the Hittite Law: "If a man dies without a child, his wife should marry her husbands brother; if he dies also, she should marry the father of her husband; if he dies also, she should marry her husbands nephew. A child from any one of these would take his fathers name and inheritance." If we go by this rule Tamar might have performed this trick on her father-in-law to acquire the inheritance. Judah's - the father-in-law - wish, before learning the truth, that the woman should be burnt is an Indian tradition. There in India the woman either marries with someone from the family or she is burnt.

ABRAHAM'S INHERITANCE

The problem of Abraham's inheritance has its origin in another Sumerian Law. As you know, the Old Testament tells us that Abraham was without a child and Sarai gives her Egyptian slave Hagar to him, so that he may have a child. Hagar gives birth to Ishmael. And later on Abraham's wife Sarai gives birth to Isaac. Hagar despises Sarai and Sarai has Hagar and her son Ishmael taken to the desert and left there. Abraham's God approves this act. Again this is based on a Sumerian law called the Lipit-Ishtar Law where it is written that, if a man's wife bears a child, even if the slave and her child are given their freedom, children of the slave could not share the inheritance with the master's children.

So! This is the reconstruction of the person, life and times of Abraham, the 'patriarch, prophet, and ancestor' of the 'religions of the book.'