Progenitor-ship &
the Ethics of Suffering
Monotheism · Polytheism · Iconoclasm · The Code of Hammurabi · J.S. Jowett
This page addresses the theological and juridical inheritance from Sumerian civic law through to Roman monotheism — the same civilisational arc traced archaeologically across the blog's main posts.
From Sumerian Suffering to Roman Iconography — The Adaptation of Maat
Returning to discuss the ascendant role of Jesus following the tied fate of religious bible studies — previously throughout the Channel of J.S. Jowett on YouTube and up to Podcast #3 — we approached the compassionate advance of Jesus to tend to the weak, poor and sick out of compassion and in appropriation of good societal progress. A narrative underlying the Roman occupation of Israel, the adaptation contrasts the Book of Job, which applies the lessons of community in escalation from the Sumerian source.
The loss of progenitorship under the Annunaki is the central pillar here, along with the adaptation of narratives to create continuity of resolutions under the pretences of the restoration of Maat. What prompted a flood of anarchic destruction headed by Homo Sapiens Sapiens focuses the inquiry onto humans as the entirely sponsored — created — race aside the Annunaki. A strong race of workers and breeders, it was humankind who rebelled due to internal struggles with fringe elements and by the limitations of the mind-body itself under a superior race, who boast technological and intellectual superiority.
In embracing the opportunity to live in the wilds as any animal would and does, humanity is the bad guy in this myth-history — perhaps a greedy, jealous being who succeeded to ascend through a backdoor.
Each Profession Its God — The Conceptual Transition to One Faith
This focus on Jesus as an icon of unjust suffering — where the community response was idolised for political integrity under the Emperor of Rome — is justified whereby the fuller misinterpretation of this ever complex dissolution of the ethics of suffering applies. A narrowing of the many gods of polytheism, its personifications as deities acting as the voices of condemnation where community is included in the Book of Job, has shown us that the community voices essentially compete with the identities of the gods.
Polytheism, a readily transparent religious ideal, ensures each profession has its divine overseer — a god of the various orders, each in dedication to the supreme cosmic order. That is itself in combination propping a single integrity — and is where the conceptual monotheism becomes obvious as a thorough process of the many orders in one faith. The methodology of different people who approve of different things, and hold alternative habits, as having alternative divine sources, is an appropriate solution for multi-cultural community standards — initially through segregation out of language barriers, and subsequently through behavioural norms.
To unbutton this intricate weave of narratives, we start from the composition of Job, Old Testament, and its adaptation from Ludlul-Bel-Nemeqi. A man suffering malaise under dedication to the God of Justice — professional oversight firstly, as in duty of a judge, to the law, no personal matters should interfere with the judge's capacity to fulfil their role. This rule of application of duty forms the essential etiquette witnessed in modern institutions — an underlying principle. The closer we look at the scenarios we reveal the ascription to return to Maat through the execution of orderly rules descended from scholars and teachers past. This is a professional duty of the utmost, and has various demands by which it can succeed — the primary one being the seamless performance of the person in duties and tasks of employment.
The Final Solution — From Banishment to Incarceration
The traditional final solution differed in the modern framework — where jail-time is the final result of the lawless facing judgement. In elder times, banishment was an effective solution, more so without imparting wicked duties on other members of the city. The Sumerians' methods of law and order may have backfired as we see the Greeks arising with the same final solution and the same polytheistic order. When combining the real outcome of dissent with a tendency to anarchy, we find the exiles uniting in retribution — and exile so presents a fundamental long-term potential for utter destruction.
The monotheists by latter Roman time overturned this practice in favour of imprisonment, where evidently the chance of exiles uniting and mustering an attack on the nation was too risky. Thus the Jesus narrative interjects appropriately with moral insistence — such that liberty will be stripped partly-to-permanently, as weighed on the crime at judgement time. The means to achieve it was a reversed compulsion with the holy righteous son of god crucified for upholding moral vice over community base law and order.
An ideally impersonal execution with impunity has become the result of inter-generational escalations of law and order — producing a moral dilemma compounded on the failings of exile in the rallying forces of mercenaries, theft and further crime.
The Family of Gods, the Annunaki & the Foundation of Civic Law
The alternative common sources available today retain a significant account of the regency surrounding the foundations of Sumerian society. These Gods — a family of Gods — are accounted for in the Code of Hammurabi, whose prologue names Anu, Bel, Marduk and the Anunnaki explicitly as the divine source of civic authority:
"When the lofty Anu, king of the Anunnaki, and Bel, lord of heaven and earth, he who determines the destiny of the land, committed the rule of all mankind to Marduk, the chief son of Ea; when they made him great among the Igigi; when they pronounced the lofty name of Babylon; when they made it famous among the quarters of the world and in its midst established an everlasting kingdom whose foundations were firm as heaven and earth — at that time, Anu and Bel called me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, the worshiper of the gods, to cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil, to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak, to go forth like the Sun over the Black Head Race, to enlighten the land and to further the welfare of the people."
The Codex of Hammurabi's protracted list of 282 laws includes commercial and production law along with ethical laws for society — classically the lex talionis: not merely "an eye for an eye" but precisely "if one break a man's bone, they shall break his bone" — a bone for a bone. Complex inter-socio laws govern dowry, inheritance, and sexual conduct with equal specificity. The bulk sum is followed by the Epilogue, which returns to the divine mandate and the cosmic consequences of its violation:
"The righteous laws, which Hammurabi, the wise king, established and by which he gave the land stable support and pure government... In the days that are yet to come, for all future time, may the king who is in the land observe the words of righteousness which I have written upon my monument! May he not alter the judgments of the land which I have pronounced, or the decisions of the country which I have rendered!... Let any oppressed man, who has a cause, come before my image as king of righteousness! Let him read the inscription on my monument! Let him give heed to my weighty words! And may my monument enlighten him as to his cause and may he understand his case!"
"If that man do not pay attention to my words which I have written upon my monument; if he forget my curse and do not fear the curse of god; if he abolish the judgments which I have formulated, overrule my words, alter my statues... may the great god, the father of the gods, who has ordained my reign, take from him the glory of his sovereignty, may he break his scepter, and curse his fate!"
Concluding this expounding narrative, we have identified a cause for surrendering the pursuit of Maat in attainment of personal reward, at the expense of the community's integrity. The degrees in which individuals affect others is the critical metric in an economic system which more or less allows for neutral exchange in possessions and raw wealth. It is a complex investigation currently based on the sheer weight of the most valuable resource — and the inability for thieves to simply take it and escape to a new land where impunity resides with the utmost discretion.
However at point is the matter of Maat — the alternative common sources available today retain a significant account of the regency surrounding the foundations of Sumerian society. These Gods, this family of Gods, are accounted for in the Code of Hammurabi. The inquiry has shown that turning to other Gods amid those perceiving injustices has been trumped under a one-God ideal — forcing the interjection of watchers to act, and where actual crimes are inferred, duty is imparted to uphold the community's values as laws.
Page maintained by Jason Steven Jowett (J.S. Jowett, JSJowett, J S Jowett). Written as commentary and prompt material for the YouTube channel series on the Ethics of Suffering. The Code of Hammurabi text is reproduced from the Harper translation via Wikisource under public domain. humanityqualifies.blogspot.com · Jason Steven Jowett
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