static noise effect
mysterious music
I've been a preacher for more than 30
years. I've studied and taught through
the book of Genesis many, many times
in churches all around the world
and I've trained pastors in the skills of
interpreting texts
and it's very clear they're not stories
about Gods.
They're stories about the powerful ones in
the Bible.
And the sky people, the Anunnakki
in the Sumerian tablets
static noise effect
[Narrator] In 1896 eminent scholar
Nathaniel Schmidt
was fired from his position
as Professor of Semitic languages
at Colgate University
For eleven years, this American University
had enjoyed Nathaniel Schmidt rendition ?
and Semitic Languages
He delivered numerous courses in Hebrew,
Aramaic, Coptic , Arabic , Syriac
and other ancient languages besides
In fact, Nathaniel Schmidt was one of
America's leading scholars in the field
So why, after eleven years
of outstanding achievement
was he tried for heresy,
and fired from his tenure in 1896?
Though a devout Christian
and a Baptist pastor
The authorities considered that his recent
theological papers had struck
at the very roots
of two world religions
Christianity and Judaism.
What Nathaniel Schmidt had done wrong
was read the Sumerian and Babylonian
and Assyrian text and notice
that they were full
of fascinating parallels.
Stories that occurred there
that were uncannily similar to all
the stories and begginings
of the Bible.
Stories like: Adam and Eve
The Fall , Cain and Abel
The Flood, the limiting of human life,
the event of the Tower of Babel,
and Schmidt's work demonstrated that
the Sumerian accounts
and those that follow it
from nearly 6000 years ago
where in all probability
the source of all those familiar ?
biblical stories.
Now, that was a problem
in the 1890's
because if you think about it
the Church was still reading from
the after effects of
[Paul] Charles Darwin's
"On the Origin of Species"
and it is busy
putting together
new doctrinal basis
and new doctrines
of biblical inherency
to shore up the ship
So the idea that the Bible
might actually be based
on somebody else's stories
was a bit of an embarrassment
It shouldn't have been
because Judaism
and Christianity
both find their roots
in the story of a Sumerian family.
The family of Abraham and Sarah.
Abraham and Sarah
grew up and spent
the best part of their lives
in (research name)
A Sumerian culture
and so when they emigrated
from there
it's hardly surprising that
they would carry with them
[Paul] all the stories of beginnings
that they had
grown up with.
and sew them
into the foundations
of what was to become
their culture
their religion
and their Bible.