0:00:03.990,0:00:13.070
static noise effect

0:00:13.353,0:00:25.183
mysterious music

0:00:30.536,0:00:34.536
I've been a preacher for more than 30[br]years. I've studied and taught through

0:00:34.536,0:00:38.536
the book of Genesis many, many times[br]in churches all around the world

0:00:38.536,0:00:42.536
and I've trained pastors in the skills of[br]interpreting texts

0:00:42.536,0:00:46.316
and it's very clear they're not stories[br]about Gods.

0:00:46.316,0:00:49.766
They're stories about the powerful ones in[br]the Bible.

0:00:49.766,0:00:53.996
And the sky people, the Anunnaki[br]and the Sumerian tablets

0:00:55.826,0:01:08.626
static noise effect

0:01:10.604,0:01:14.521
[Narrator] In 1896 eminent scholar[br]Nathaniel Schmidt

0:01:14.521,0:01:18.964
was fired from his position[br]as Professor of Semitic languages

0:01:18.964,0:01:21.564
at Colgate University

0:01:21.685,0:01:26.735
For eleven years, this American University[br]had enjoyed Nathaniel Schmidt erudition?

0:01:26.735,0:01:28.575
and Semitic Languages

0:01:28.575,0:01:34.115
He delivered numerous courses in Hebrew,[br]Aramaic, Coptic , Arabic , Syriac

0:01:34.115,0:01:37.355
and other ancient languages besides

0:01:37.418,0:01:42.028
In fact, Nathaniel Schmidt was one of[br]America's leading scholars in the field

0:01:43.377,0:01:46.567
So why, after eleven years[br]of outstanding achievement

0:01:46.567,0:01:48.840
was he tried for heresy,

0:01:48.840,0:01:52.400
and fired from his tenure in 1896?

0:01:53.328,0:01:56.068
Though a devout Christian[br]and a Baptist pastor

0:01:56.084,0:01:58.534
The authorities considered [br]that his recent

0:01:58.534,0:02:01.373
theological papers had struck[br]at the very roots

0:02:01.373,0:02:03.433
of two world religions

0:02:03.873,0:02:06.133
Christianity and Judaism.

0:02:07.125,0:02:09.655
What Nathaniel Schmidt had done wrong

0:02:09.655,0:02:12.755
was read the Sumerian and Babylonian

0:02:12.755,0:02:16.595
and Assyrian text and notice[br]that they were full

0:02:16.595,0:02:20.755
of fascinating parallels.[br]Stories that occurred there

0:02:20.755,0:02:25.475
that were uncannily similar to all[br]the stories and beginnings

0:02:25.475,0:02:26.373
of the Bible.

0:02:26.373,0:02:28.055
Stories like: Adam and Eve

0:02:28.055,0:02:30.305
The Fall , Cain and Abel

0:02:30.665,0:02:33.955
The Flood, the limiting of human life,

0:02:33.955,0:02:36.287
the event of the Tower of Babel,

0:02:36.287,0:02:39.577
and Schmidt's work demonstrated that

0:02:39.577,0:02:42.987
the Sumerian accounts

0:02:42.987,0:02:47.740
and those that follow it[br]from nearly 6000 years ago

0:02:47.740,0:02:50.987
where in all probability [br]the source of all those familiar

0:02:50.987,0:02:52.940
biblical stories.

0:02:52.940,0:02:55.817
Now, that was a problem[br]in the 1890's

0:02:55.817,0:02:57.347
because if you think about it

0:02:57.347,0:03:00.087
the Church was still reading from[br]the after effects of

0:03:00.087,0:03:02.797
[Paul] Charles Darwin's [br]"On the Origin of Species"

0:03:02.868,0:03:04.768
and it is busy [br]putting together

0:03:04.768,0:03:06.170
new doctrinal basis

0:03:06.240,0:03:09.268
and new doctrines [br]of biblical inherency

0:03:09.348,0:03:10.448
to shore up the ship

0:03:10.711,0:03:12.563
So the idea that the Bible [br]

0:03:12.563,0:03:15.799
might actually be based [br]on somebody else's stories

0:03:16.709,0:03:18.476
was a bit of an embarrassment

0:03:18.476,0:03:19.578
It shouldn't have been

0:03:19.578,0:03:22.028
because Judaism [br]and Christianity

0:03:22.028,0:03:23.778
both find their roots

0:03:23.778,0:03:27.009
in the story of a Sumerian family.

0:03:27.249,0:03:30.599
The family of Abraham and Sarah.

0:03:30.704,0:03:32.894
Abraham and Sarah [br]grew up and spent

0:03:32.894,0:03:35.709
the best part of their lives[br]in (research name)

0:03:35.821,0:03:37.451
A Sumerian culture

0:03:37.587,0:03:40.897
and so when they emigrated[br]from there

0:03:40.945,0:03:44.465
it's hardly surprising that[br]they would carry with them

0:03:44.465,0:03:46.315
[Paul] all the stories of beginnings

0:03:46.315,0:03:47.902
that they had [br]grown up with.

0:03:48.122,0:03:50.992
and sew them[br]into the foundations

0:03:51.032,0:03:52.313
of what was to become

0:03:52.413,0:03:53.673
their culture

0:03:53.822,0:03:55.132
their religion

0:03:55.222,0:03:56.742
and their Bible.

0:03:57.144,0:03:59.884
And so, it shouldn't be a surprise[br]that in the Bible

0:03:59.884,0:04:03.654
we have a summary version[br]of all these stories

0:04:03.654,0:04:07.965
that ? the Sumerian, Babylonian [br]and Assyrian texts.

0:04:08.235,0:04:10.525
The problem and the shock horror

0:04:10.525,0:04:13.312
is that the original versions

0:04:13.312,0:04:18.207
the Sumerian versions of these stories[br]make no mention of God at all.

0:04:19.288,0:04:22.102
In the Sumerian originals[br]these are stories

0:04:22.102,0:04:26.026
of our ancestor's contact [br]with another species.

0:04:26.502,0:04:29.312
A species called [br]The Anunnakki.

0:04:30.783,0:04:32.763
[Narrator] Could Judaism[br]and Christianity

0:04:32.763,0:04:34.247
familiar stories of God

0:04:34.247,0:04:38.090
really be a retelling of our[br]ancestor's close encounters

0:04:38.090,0:04:40.627
with extraterrestrials?

0:04:41.172,0:04:47.453
the cuneiform tablets which has fascinated [br]Nathaniel Schmidt were first on Earth in 1500.

0:04:47.456,0:04:52.650
As colonial powers began to escalate the ancient [br]sites of Mesopotamia.

0:04:53.379,0:04:59.329
Over the decades had followed some 200,000 clay tablets were uncovered.

0:04:59.649,0:05:03.630
The tablets were adorned with strange etchings[br]hieroglyphs[br][br]

0:05:03.630,0:05:06.907
made when the clay was soft.

0:05:07.046,0:05:11.716
Scholars of the day divided us to the meanings of these markings

0:05:11.716,0:05:15.823
Some believe that the glyphs to be an unknown written language.

0:05:15.823,0:05:17.752
Others refuse to accept this.

0:05:17.752,0:05:21.172
since the tablets appear to predate any known language.

0:05:21.172,0:05:25.565
They presume the markings to be no more than decoration.

0:05:25.565,0:05:29.284
And so the tablets were archived,

0:05:29.284,0:05:32.955
the secrets were locked away for three centuries.

0:05:33.502,0:05:37.282
Until it 1835,

0:05:37.282,0:05:42.008
Henry Rawranson arrived. In south western Iran.

0:05:42.618,0:05:47.938
Rawranson was a military man. He was employed by the East India Tea Company.

0:05:47.938,0:05:51.728
And he was in Iran helping the Shah of Iran to train his troops.

0:05:51.728,0:05:55.268
As worth pausing there for a moment because if you thought that

0:05:55.268,0:05:59.895
corporations rivaling nations states was something new

0:05:59.895,0:06:03.238
take a look at the East India Tea company.

0:06:03.268,0:06:06.988
A tea company that's able to move a standing army

0:06:06.988,0:06:13.010
around the world and train the armies of nation states.

0:06:13.010,0:06:16.118
That's quite a tea company.

0:06:16.118,0:06:22.840
In fact, Rawranson presence in Iran wasn't part of