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I've been a preacher for more than 30[br]years. I've studied and taught through

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the book of Genesis many, many times[br]in churches all around the world

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and I've trained pastors in the skills of[br]interpreting texts

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and it's very clear they're not stories[br]about Gods.

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They're stories about the powerful ones in[br]the Bible.

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And the sky people, the Anunnakki [br]in the Sumerian tablets

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static noise effect

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[Narrator] In 1896 eminent scholar [br]Nathaniel Schmidt

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was fired from his position[br]as Professor of Semitic languages

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at Colgate University

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For eleven years, this American University[br]had enjoyed Nathaniel Schmidt rendition ?

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and Semitic Languages

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He delivered numerous courses in Hebrew,[br]Aramaic, ? , Arabic , Syriac

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and other ancient languages besides

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In fact, Nathaniel Schmidt was one of [br]America's leading scholars in the field

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So why, after eleven years [br]of outstanding achievement

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was he tried for heresy,

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and fired from his tenure in 1896?

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Though a devout Christian [br]and a Baptist pastor

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The authorities considered that his recent

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theological papers had struck[br]at the very roots

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of two world religions

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Christianity and Judaism.

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What Nathaniel Schmidt had done wrong

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was read the Sumerian and Babylonian

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and Assyrian text and notice[br]that they were full

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of fascinating parallels.[br]Stories that occurred there

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that were uncannily similar to all [br]the stories and begginings

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of the Bible.

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Stories like: Adam and Eve

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The Fall , Cain and Abel

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The Flood, the limiting of human life,

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the event of the Tower of Babel,

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and Schmidt's work demonstrated

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the Sumerian accounts

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and those that follow it[br]from nearly 6000 years ago

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where in all probability [br]the source of all those familiar ?

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biblical stories.

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Now, that was a problem[br]in the 1890's

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because if you think about it

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the Church was still r? from[br]the after effects of

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Charles Darwin's [br]"On the Origin of Species"

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and its busy [br]putting together

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new doctrinal basis

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and new doctrines [br]of biblical inherency

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to shore up the ship

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So the idea that the Bible [br]

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might actually be based [br]on somebody else's stories

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was a bit of an embarrassment

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It shouldn't have been

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because Judaism [br]and Christianity

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both find their roots

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in the story of a Sumerian family.

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